CIO – Hispanic IT leaders pioneer new paths to the top

One of the key ways to promote more diversity in IT is to have multi-racial and multi-cultural representation at the top. Yet while companies are starting to dial up diversity when recruiting for top executives and board members, progress remains slow because the numbers tell the real story. If a company is searching for a seasoned, diverse CIO candidate with 20-plus years of experience, it’s a pretty small pool to fish from because the industry has only been focused on the issue for past five or so years, according to Charles Gray, partner and head of the US Technology Officers Practice, and board practice specialist at Egon Zehnder, a leadership advisory firm.

“The math doesn’t work and the pipeline is nowhere near where it needs to be,” says Gray, who advises companies to balance recruiting externally with developing their own people to cultivate a diverse IT executive succession bench. “Otherwise, you have to recruit from other companies and while that may help you solve your own challenges, it hasn’t changed the overall population of the executives in the marketplace. You’re simply shifting people from one seat to the next.”

Full story: Beth Stackpole: Hispanic IT leaders pioneer new paths to the top, on CIO.com (15 September 2021).