“This spring, Chicago Sinfonietta received a $625,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,” writes Lisa Bertagnoli in Thursday’s (5/12) Crain’s Chicago Business. “Jim Hirsch, the Sinfonietta’s executive director, wanted to know why his organization received an allocation almost a third the size of its annual operating budget, so he asked. The answer: A stable and effective management team—and leadership in promoting and championing diversity and inclusion. … Chicago Sinfonietta, founded in 1987 by Paul Freeman, the African-American conductor who died in 2015, has diversity and inclusion written into its mission statement. Its 26-person board, which is 51 percent male and 49 percent female, has 16 members who can be counted as diverse: Asians, Latinos, an openly gay man, a person of Middle Eastern heritage. … ‘One of the values of bringing diversity to the board is that it will bring a richer dialogue, and conversation and perspective to an important issue,’ says Deborah DeHaas, chief inclusion officer at Deloitte and national managing partner for its Center for Corporate Governance. … Paying attention to those voices is the ‘inclusion’ part of diversity and inclusion, DeHaas adds. ‘That’s how you unleash the power of the most effective board.’ ”
Posted May 16, 2016
