Jonathan Mayes on staying connected with a peer group

Jonathan Mayes:
My name is Jonathan Mayes. I'm Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for Albertsons Companies.

Jonathan Mayes:
So what would I say to someone who is evaluating whether to come next year? I would say come and here's several reasons why. First of all, just the networking, I mean, just the amazing people I have met today, highly skilled in what they do. Second is just the content of the presentations, I think can just help lift your whole game with regard to all things HR. Third is inspiration. I mean, just coming, just to meet people who can also kind of put wind in your sails. I think those and other reasons are reasons why I would strongly recommend that you come.

Jonathan Mayes:
So one key takeaway I want to share today is just one to acknowledge that bias is real. It's really hard, if not impossible, to completely overcome, but there's hope. And I'm going to share some tools to help people identify bias and also to combat bias.

Jonathan Mayes:
So how important is it for executives to engage in events like this one? Well, a lot of reasons why, but mostly because it's a way to get inspiration from other people, again, to help you figure out how best to do your job and have the motivation and just the encouragement of others to do it. We're all in this game, this work together. And so we can learn from each other and we can draft off each other to learn how we can be the best we can possibly be in our role.