{"id":19844,"date":"2019-10-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=19844"},"modified":"2020-09-18T00:35:38","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T00:35:38","slug":"inspire-empower-elevate-salesforces-second-annual-racial-equality-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/news\/stories\/inspire-empower-elevate-salesforces-second-annual-racial-equality-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspire, Empower, Elevate: Salesforce’s Second Annual Racial Equality Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last Tuesday, Salesforce hosted its second annual Racial Equality Summit, Representation Matters<\/a>. Six hundred joined in person at Yerba Buena Gardens Theater in San Francisco (with over half a million watching online), to celebrate Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities who are historically the most underrepresented in business, and remain the most unrepresented in the tech industry today. A full day of programming elevated luminary talent in these communities who are trailblazers in their respective fields, while having important conversations about how to drive racial equality in business and society at large. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch the full program here<\/a>.<\/b><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The day opened with remarks from Tony Prophet, Chief Equality Officer at Salesforce, alongside three of Salesforce\u2019s Employee Resource Group (ERG) presidents that support the Black, Latinx, and Indigenous employees and allies. \u201cToday is all about upleveling the work of those most underrepresented groups in the tech community. We hope that today and throughout the programming, you feel inspired by our communities, you feel empowered to go back to your companies to create change, and you see yourself in the role models we brought for you today, because as we all know, representation matters.\u201d Andr\u00e9a Schiller, President of Latinoforce said. Tony honored the work the presidents are doing to cultivate a culture of belonging at Salesforce. \u201cEvery day they inspire me. I\u2019m super proud to be their colleague, and that they\u2019re leading this important part of the organization through equality groups,\u201d Prophet said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What it Means to Lead in the Tech Industry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Next, c-suite executives from Deloitte, Cisco Systems, and Kapor Center took the stage for an engaging conversation around what it means to lead in the tech industry. Similarly reflected in their answers were their mothers\u2019 influence in their ambitions. Lili Gangas, Chief Technology Community Officer of Kapor Center, recalled her family\u2019s journey, starting with immigrating from Bolivia, being raised by a single parent in a low-income household, and English being her second language. Fast forward to earning her degree in Electrical Engineering, and her career beginning working in the aerospace industry on classified systems and information. She questioned who would believe a child of an immigrant would later be working on such a project? \u201cMy momma did,\u201d Gangas said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global Chief Innovation Officer of Deloitte, Larry Quinlan, raised his perspective on the responsibility of now being \u201cin the room,\u201d an analogy used consistently throughout the day equated with having a level of influence to be included in decision-making and high-level discussions. Quinlan declared, \u201cIt is my absolute responsibility to deliberately help others get into rooms I happen to be in or rooms that I own.\u201d This proved true when SVP, Customer Transformation at Cisco Systems, Guillermo Diaz, recalled being on a panel with Quinlan 14 years ago, and how when he became CIO at Cisco, Quinlan flew to visit him and sat in the room with him for a required CIO simulation exercise. Elevating others and each other has helped the panelists get to where they are today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch the full session here<\/a>.<\/b><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dascha Polanco on Building a Business and Taking in the Moment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Up next, award winning actress and activist, Dascha Polanco took the stage to discuss her journey, both personally and professionally, most well-known for her role portraying Dayanara “Daya” Diaz on the Netflix series, Orange Is the New Black. A Dominican immigrant, Polanco had to learn how to advocate for herself and her work in the entertainment industry, the hard way. Her takeaways: \u201cIt\u2019s ok to ask for what you\u2019re worth.\u201d Polanco also spoke to the need for more diversity across the board when it comes to the entertainment industry. \u201cThere\u2019s been progress but we still have a lot of work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dascha Polanco speaks onstage about why Representation Matters to her, the media industry, and society at large.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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