Today, in celebration of Black History Month, we chat with Jason Atwater from EMBA class of 2019. He is the Head of Inclusion & Diversity in Ancestry and co-founder of Black Roots, an employee resource group that champions black employees and customers to enhance Ancestry’s business. He also became the VP of Diversity and Inclusion for Berkeley Haas Executive MBA Program.

Jason walks us through his career from being a sales engineer to digital marketing before pivoting into inclusion and diversity, which is his true passion.

He lets us on the challenges he met while building Black Roots in Ancestry and offers advice on how other people can create a similar group within their companies. 

Jason also shares where to find helpful resources when starting a resource group and effectively position similar initiatives within a company.

Episode Quotes:

On why he chose to go to Haas - "The positioning of the Haas program, the focus on leadership, the focus on ethical responsibility, and the pillars, all of that just really spoke to me. I think this is where I think I'm supposed to be to take me to the next level of where my journey is supposed to go. And I was right."

His advice on people who want to create a similar resource group like Black Roots - "Be clear about your mission statement and goals, what you want to do and who you are as a group. Find like-minded individuals who believe in your mission and willing to help. Finally, find at least one senior leadership person who can act as your guide or your sponsor."

On why he pivoted from marketing to diversion and inclusion - "I will always love marketing, but I had been doing it for a long time. I really wanted to help make the world a better place, and working in inclusion and diversity is my way of acting change in a positive way."

On being successful as a marketer - "I think my brief career in sales and the success I had were because I was good at relationship building. I was good at being genuine with my customers and really talking to them, trying to understand where they came from and what they needed, and not just trying to slam in a sale. It was the right thing to do."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn

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