Interpublic Releases Data about Racial Makeup of the Holding Company’s Leadership
Calling it an industry first, Interpublic released publicly data about the racial makeup of the holding company’s leadership ranks in the U.S. The company collects the data annually for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, although there is no legal requirement to disclose it to the general public, reports MediaPost.
According to MediaPost, the public release of the data, for calendar year 2019, followed the issuance of an open letter to the advertising community by 600 African American ad professionals demanding (among other things) that the industry be more transparent about minority employment figures.
The data show that African Americans comprise 2.6% of IPG’s senior and executive level managers, just slightly ahead of an industry sector defined as “professional, scientific and technical services” which includes advertising firms and other professional services including law firms, management consultants and accounting firms.
Asians comprise 5.5% of IPG’s senior management ranks versus 10.1% for the sector. Whites comprise 84.9% of the holding company’s leaders versus 82.5% for the sector. For Hispanics/Latinos the IPG figures is 5.2% versus 3.6% for the industry sector.
MediaPost stated that in a memo to all IPG staff, “CEO Michael Roth said the he has been having conversations with numerous groups inside and outside the company in recent weeks to get feedback on the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts and how better to combat systemic racism. He noted that a “key theme” was “to have more transparency.” He noted that in many markets outside the U.S. disclosure of the diversity figures was legally required while that is not the case here.”
More here.
