Honor Black History Month by joining IPG’s CEO Philippe Krakowsky, IPG’s Black Employee Network, and the Executive Leadership Council for a national conversation with a panel of iconic Black business leaders. During 2020, there appeared to be a shift as corporate boards and companies prioritized purpose as essential to financial performance, with equity and representation as key factors.
Our distinguished panel will reflect on the impact of these changes in board rooms and broadly across Corporate America. We will also explore our panel’s views on how business in general has and should address the under-representation of Black leaders in governance, NGOs, and as business partners.
Crystal E. Ashby
Interim President and CEO
The Executive Leadership Council
Crystal E. Ashby is Interim President and CEO of The Executive Leadership Council (ELC), the preeminent membership organization for Black CEOs, board directors, and the most senior Black executives at Fortune 1000, Global 500 and equivalent companies. She is the first woman President and CEO of the organization and leads its efforts to increase the number of global Black executives in C-Suites and on corporate boards, and to grow the pipeline of the next generation of Blacks in business.
Crystal is an accomplished senior executive, board member and lawyer with more than 34 years of leadership success, significantly in the energy sector. Her corporate leadership experience was gained over a twenty-two-year career with BP where her roles spanned government and external affairs, law, compliance and ethics, university relations and retail.
Crystal is an Independent Director of Texas Reliability Entity, Inc. (Texas RE) where she is Chair of the Director Compensation Committee and a member of the Audit, Governance & Finance and Hearing Body Committees. She also sits on the University of Michigan College of Engineering Dean’s Leadership Advisory Board. She was recently Vice Chair of The ELC Board and served on the National Boards of Genesys Works, the Holocaust Museum Houston and Women Business Collaborative.
Crystal’s honors and recognitions include Diversity Global 2020 Top 10 Influential Women in Diversity, 2015 Texas General Counsel Forum Women’s Caucus Luncheon Keynote Speaker, 2014 University of Michigan College of Engineering Spring Commencement Address, 2014 Uptown Professional Top 100 Executives in America, 2014 National Diversity Council Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Oil and Gas, 2014 Oil-Gas Diversity Council Influential Women Leaders, 2013 Congressional Uplift Award Certificate of Congressional Recognition and 2012 Houston Woman Magazine 50 Most Influential Women.
Crystal is an NACD Fellow and member of the International Women’s Forum. She earned her Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a double major in English and Psychology, from the University of Michigan.
John W. Rogers, Jr.
Chairman, Co-CEO and Chief Investment Officer
Ariel Investments
John W. Rogers, Jr. is Founder, Chairman, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Ariel Investments. Headquartered in Chicago, the firm offers five no-load mutual funds for individual investors and defined contribution plans as well as separately managed accounts for institutions and high net worth individuals.
After working for 2½ years at William Blair & Company, LLC, John founded Ariel Investments in 1983 to focus on undervalued small and medium-sized companies. Patience served as the cornerstone of a disciplined approach that still drives the firm today.
John’s passion for investing started when he was 12 years old when his father bought him stocks, instead of toys, for every birthday and Christmas. His interest grew while majoring in Economics at Princeton University. In addition to following stocks as a college student, John also played basketball under Hall of Fame coach Pete Carril. He was captain of Princeton’s Varsity Basketball Team his senior year. There, Carril’s courtside lessons on teamwork profoundly shaped his views of entrepreneurship and investing.
Early in his career, John’s investment expertise brought him to the forefront of media attention, including being selected as Co-Mutual Fund Manager of the Year by Sylvia Porter’s Personal Finance magazine as well as an All- Star Mutual Fund Manager by USA TO DAY.
Ariel Fund, which John started over 30 years ago and still manages today—is the number-one ranked fund among its peer group since the market bottom which followed the Great Financial Crisis. It’s a testament to John’s “slow and steady” patient investment approach, staying focused, remaining true to his convictions, having a contrarian view and investing in great companies that have fallen out of favor. A disciple of Warren Buffett, John believes in being, “Fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” It’s also why John has been highlighted alongside legendary investors Warren Buffett, Sir John Templeton and Ben Graham in the distinguished book: The World’s 99 Greatest Investors by Magnus Angenfelt.
A sought after market commentator and speaker, John is regularly featured and quoted in a wide variety of financial broadcast and print publications.
Beyond Ariel, John is a board member of McDonald’s, NIKE, The New York Times Company and serves as vice chair of the board of trustees of the University of Chicago. Nationally, John is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a director of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
In 2008, John was awarded Princeton University’s highest honor, the Woodrow Wilson Award, presented each year to the alumnus or alumna whose career embodies a commitment to national service. Following the election of President Barack Obama, he served as co-chair for the Presidential Inaugural Committee 2009, and more recently, he joined the Barack Obama Foundation’s Board of Directors.
Jocelyn Carter-Miller
President, TechEdVentures
Jocelyn Carter-Miller is President of TechEdVentures, a community empowerment firm that educates and inspires children, families and the broader community through the development and management of charter schools, community-based programs and other enterprises. Using state-of-the-art business strategies, technology resources and creative partnerships, TechEdVentures provides operations management, program development, marketing, training and community relationship building to develop the enterprises that promote community and economic renewal. TechEdVentures enterprises include Smart School Charter Middle School, Smart School Institute of Technology and Commerce (high school), Eagle Charter Academy, Community Learning Center, First Tee of Lauderhill (golf and character-building program) and Rapid Refill Ink.
Prior to joining TechEdVentures, Carter-Miller was Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Office Depot, Inc., where she managed marketing efforts across its retail, contract, catalog and e-commerce businesses. Formerly, she served as Motorola Corporate Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer; Vice President of Latin American and Caribbean Operations, and Director of European, Middle East and African Operations for the Motorola International Networks Division; and Vice President of Marketing and Product Development for Mattel.
Carter-Miller has co-authored with Melissa Giovagnoli the book Networlding: Building Relationships and Opportunities for Success, published by Jossey-Bass Publishers.
She has an MBA degree from the University of Chicago, a BS in Accounting from the University of Illinois and is a CPA. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Coral Springs Museum of Art and is a former board member of the Association of National Advertisers, the University of Chicago Women’s Business Advisory Group and the Urban League of Broward County.
She is a member of the Board of Directors of Arlo Technologies, Inc. and the Principal Financial Group, Inc. Carter-Miller has been a member of the Board of Directors of Interpublic Group since 2007.
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer
IPG
Philippe Krakowsky is Chief Executive Officer of IPG, a role he assumed on January 1, 2021. He is also a member of IPG’s Board of Directors.
Prior to being named IPG’s CEO, Philippe was the company’s Chief Operating Officer, managing business operations across all of Interpublic, with direct oversight of IPG’s independent companies Acxiom, Carmichael Lynch, Deutsch, Hill Holliday, Huge, Kinesso, Matterkind and R/GA. During that time, Philippe was also Chairman of IPG Mediabrands. Over the course of his nearly two-decade tenure at IPG, Philippe has also led the strategy, talent, communications and business development functions for the holding company.
Before taking on the COO role at IPG, Philippe spent a number of years as CEO of Mediabrands, leading the 10,500-person unit that oversees marketing investment for many of the world’s most iconic brands. In that capacity, he strengthened the group’s leadership position in digital and data-driven marketing and increased its collaboration across the IPG network. Concurrently, he also served as IPG’s Chief Strategy and Talent Officer, roles he played for many years, overseeing key functions that have been vital to the company’s development and growth.
In 2018, Philippe was the key architect of IPG’s $2.3 billion acquisition of Acxiom, the data and solutions company that has developed one of the world’s most extensive consumer data assets, and is just as importantly known for its leadership in data privacy and data ethics.
Since joining us in 2002, Philippe has led and implemented major strategic actions that have been instrumental in IPG becoming an industry leader. These include the early decision to embed digital and emerging media capabilities across the group’s portfolio, as well as the creation of Mediabrands and IPG’s Healthcare Council. Additionally, Philippe has overseen IPG’s talent management, training and development, benefits and industry-leading D&I initiatives, as well as been responsible for designing many of the integrated, cross-agency client teams that have become a hallmark of Interpublic’s success. He has also served on the boards of several IPG companies, including Huge and the IPG-backed O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul, mentors startups as part of R/GA’s Ventures program, and was Interim CEO of FCB for much of 2013, during that agency’s leadership transition.
Prior to joining IPG, Philippe led the differentiation of Young & Rubicam in the marketplace during its transformation to a public company, and led the positioning for BBDO when that agency carved out a niche as one of advertising’s premier global creative networks. He began his career in advertising at Levine Huntley Schmidt and Beaver, a notable New York-based creative boutique agency.
Originally from Mexico, Philippe holds an A.B. from Harvard University. He started his business career in the technology industry, as part of the team that built and ultimately sold an artificial intelligence software company to Apple Computer in the late 1980s. He’s been inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Achievement, the premier honor for marketing services professionals under age 40.
Heide Gardner
Senior Vice President, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer
IPG
Heide is the first woman of color to serve on the IPG senior management team as an elected corporate officer and is also one of the first C-Suite Chief Diversity Officers in Fortune 500 companies. Since 2003, when she joined the global holding company, Heide’s brief has included stewardship of IPG’s award-winning diversity and inclusion agenda internationally, the operations of the D&I group and strategic industry initiatives such as the global UN Women Unstereotype Alliance, for which Heide has served as a founding Deputy Vice Chair. Her contributions have been acknowledged with many honors including a place on the roster of AdAge’s roster of the century’s Most Influential Women.
Heide came to IPG after having established a track record as an award-winning marketer, lobbyist and creative for leading global brands who transitioned to focus on industry level diversity and inclusion issues such as advertising business practices, government relations and talent development for the American Advertising Federation (AAF). While at AAF, she represented the industry to the White House, Congress and federal agencies, helping to win a 2000 Presidential Executive Order to increase contract awards for multicultural agencies and media. She also launched AAF’s legacy diversity initiatives including the AAF Most Promising Multicultural Students program and engaged the CMOs and CEOs of many of the world’s largest advertisers, agencies and media companies to collaborate on the original AAF Mosaic Principles and form the Mosaic Center.
Over the years Heide, IPG’s Chairman and CEO, Michael Roth, and the company have been recognized for influencing not only the culture within IPG, but also the industry and even the overall field of diversity and inclusion. She has been a pioneer in the applications of data and analytics and a champion of research to inform strategy and IPG has been recognized for engaging with “big thinkers” and scholars in many fields. IPG launched the Cannes Lions festival focus on gender equality in 2011 and their annual breakfast is now a marquis event. IPG also formally introduced the concept of intersectionality to the industry in 2014 during the festival, with research on women of color and identity in five countries. Under Heide’s stewardship IPG partnered with the Ad Club of New York to present the industry’s first focus on Black women. Her sponsorship and hands-on involvement in steering critical research projects have been instrumental in improving companies’ capacities for progress, Center for Talent Innovation studies on the role of bias in assessment of potential and innovation, the impact of corporate responses to current events affecting race, and a landmark study on Black talent in corporate America. IPG’s inclusion innovations, and Michael Roth’s swift and strong stands on the issues, have been featured in major trade and business press as well as the Harvard Business Review, Profiles in Diversity Journal and research reports from The Center for Talent Innovation.
Heide’s many honors include the AdColor Change Agent; AAF Industry Career Achiever, the Mount Holyoke College Alumni Achievement Award; Black Enterprise Top Executives in Diversity and a DiversityBestPractices/Working Mother Media Diversity Officer Leadership Award.
Black Business Icons from C-Suite & the Boardroom
Wednesday, February 24 | 2:00 – 3:15 PM EST
Zoom Link : https://media.rampard.com/IPG/20210224/
