Lauren Valiente Discusses Efforts to Expand Diversity on Corporate Boards

Foley & Lardner LLP of counsel Lauren Valiente is quoted in the Tampa Bay Business Journal article, “Tampa chapter of Women Corporate Directors graduates the first cohort in the Women of Color Directors Pipeline Initiative,” offering insight on her efforts with the Tampa chapter of Women Corporate Directors’ Women of Color Directors (WCD) Pipeline Initiative to expand the representation of women of color on public company boards.

“The real issue is avoiding kind of this groupthink philosophy where you have people from similar backgrounds and similar experiences that are just problem-solving in one specific way,” explained Valient, who is the WCD chapter committee leader in Tampa.

Valiente said that for some executives, board service may not even be on their radar. “They haven’t even thought about doing that,” said Valiente. “Then, it’s about how to start searching for a board seat and helping them make those connections.”

Valiente said, “We come to it with the philosophy of, look, we very much want to help companies in this regard and we want to be collaborators and as they’re looking to add a board seat, we want them to know about us.”

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