Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.

I love that saying, "A bank with a soul" because it really speaks not just to us as a bank and a business, but what we enable through the business of banking, through providing access to capital to individuals, corporations and governments. What that means in terms of services is, they can provide goods that can be bought and sold. How we function within the broader global society as a bank, I think is the message when we talk about a bank with a soul, having culture and having empathetic leaders. I think that's something else that our CEO talks about, empathetic leadership, and that is not in conflict with the message that we're meant to be excellent and deliver with pride, but to be empathetic as well.

I've never really made that comparison. When I reflect on 2008, the market landscape was different, the global landscape was different. Even the growth of the tech industry at that time and the number of jobs was different. The economy was different. There was a lot that was different. When I think about the current times, nobody contemplated a global pandemic. Nobody contemplated firms working 98% or 100% remotely, and the reliance on remote working. I also think that it wasn't contemplated that people would just opt out altogether, whether or not that was truly opting out or quietly quitting.

The landscape for employers has changed. I think the employer-employee dynamic has changed in terms of who has the power and who gets to dictate the new rules, accept or not accept the standards that are set for work. Frankly, the intersection between work and life, which for the last couple of years have never been so closely conjoined because for many of us, work and life was happening out of the same household, and it was very difficult to create those boundaries.

Leaders definitely have to take a more employee first human centered approach to leadership. I think that's really important. I think we saw that at the beginning of the pandemic and throughout. I also think to your point of this increasingly virtual and remote workplace, how leaders lead and manage and invest in people is different because you don't have that same level of in-person interaction. Especially, for industries like ours, where it's an apprenticeship model in many ways in terms of how people learn how to do the business. We have to learn how to develop and train our people, sometimes not in person, in order to do their jobs well. Remember, we have now, depending on the company, 4 to 5 generations in a workplace, everybody has worked with different tools, have different educational backgrounds, different norms in terms of their work lives, and we have everybody in the office and/or working virtually together. How leaders lead across difference and create the communication channels necessary for 4 to 5 generations to communicate and work and learn from each other and understand each other and have an inclusive environment, where everybody feels like they can belong and thrive, that's complicated as well when you think about really the melding of those generations and working and working effectively and efficiently.

The other thing is that people want to be their authentic selves in the workplace. True authenticity in the workplace, that is also new. Expecting their employers to share similar values, give back commitment to ESG, net zero, diversity, equity, inclusion. These are all major factors that workers want to know that they are at a place where their values are aligned with corporate values. That can be a challenge at times, and even for some people, where the corporate values are not aligned, they're willing to move on and find another opportunity.

The last thing I'll say is that people want to continue to grow in their careers. They want mobility, they want global exposure, and they are looking for reward, both financial and recognition. Companies need to make sure that they are embedding that into their culture as well, because I think just getting good work out of people and the burnout culture that used to be a part of investment banks and financial services, that is not what people are prepared to sign up for today. So, creating an environment with some flexibility with mobility and recognition is also a big part of the talent equation.

So when I started on Wall Street over 30 years ago, the field of diversity, equity and inclusion didn't even exist. I did experience my early years working on Wall Street, a culture that did not value difference and certainly was not focused on making me feel like I belonged or that I was included. I felt like I was able to navigate that. I definitely feel like I experienced some challenges, but I also felt like I could play a role in helping to increase the number of women and people of color working on Wall Street and help to share what I was learning along the way. That was instilled with me to give back, to teach other people what you learned and having a sense of gratitude for the advantages that I was given, the opportunities that I was given, and making sure that I was paying it forward. That's really how it started for me in the early years. I might have only been a year ahead of somebody in the analyst program, but if there was something I felt like I knew I was going to give back.

With that being said, while I really enjoyed working in financial services and in high yield capital markets and the banking business, I did see the opportunity to play a leadership role in being an agent for change over the many years to really create more of a systemic approach to creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace. There were a lot of one off efforts, specific programs, and minority internships, things of that nature that were programmatic, wine and dine or something that wasn't woven into the fabric as business as usual. I felt like there was an opportunity to try to be an agent of change and make it business as usual, not something special or on the side or in addition to what was the normal day to day activities of leaders and HR in the business.

For me, when I felt like I was more passionate about all the volunteer work I was doing in regards to diversity, equity inclusion over my day job as an investment banker, I felt like it was a great opportunity to make the move. At that time, it was a bold move, a brave move, a move people didn't understand. People thought it would be a career killer. I didn't think it was going to be a career killer, but I didn't think that the space would evolve how it had. I never expected to be at executive management leadership tables and in boardrooms talking about this topic. It certainly has evolved into more than I would have imagined, but I would have done it anyway, and I would do it again.

One of the things that benefited me early on is that I led with the data and I influenced with data. That's what I knew how to do because I was really an investment banker. Most large companies like ours, now take that data driven approach to driving diversity, equity and inclusion at their firms. But that was not necessarily the norm at the time I had started using data to make the case for why there might be a disproportionate impact or an opportunity to capture a greater percent of a group or promote more people. I definitely think taking a data driven approach is a great way to influence people. I also think that you have to meet people where they are, because if you don't meet people where they are, then how can they come along with you on the journey? It's not unlike schoolwork. If they don't know basic arithmetic, then why are you trying to teach them calculus? I think you have to meet people where they are and bring them along on the journey. Like any idea or project, people have to feel like they're a part of it. You can't just talk to people or tell them what they should do or set goals for them. People have to be a part of the process. Everybody has to have skin in the game and feel some sense of ownership for what we are trying to do here and how we are going to do it.

I definitely have tried to be a good partner and be collaborative with business leaders as we have jointly set goals and jointly set strategies to drive diversity, equity and inclusion at the firms I have worked for. Ultimately, there has to be accountability. All the great ideas, work strategies, it has to be measured or have some accountability measure or mechanism at the end of the day to make sure that you're, actually in fact, making progress and that it is not just a bunch of activity without impact. I do think understanding what good looks like, what's a desired objective, and how are we measuring success and how are we holding people accountable is definitely part of the equation as well.

The last thing I'll say, and it even speaks to what I was saying earlier, if you don't make it systemic and build it into business as usual, the changes that you'd like to see, then some of those changes or programs, they live and die based on individuals. It's not part of the system. I would much rather build things into the system. Whether or not I'm here at Citi or not, those practices, those policies, they are maintained and hopefully drive the outcomes for the things that we are looking for.

I am a believer in providing training and even more importantly, tools to equip leaders, managers, people to be educated, to understand dimensions of difference, to understand what unconscious bias is, to have common language, to understand how to take an approach to inclusive leadership. None of that speaks to whether or not people are bad or good. To me, training is one vehicle. Lived experience is another part of how people learn and grow, and even how just their perspective on the workplace and society. There are many different experiences that feed into people on who they are and the types of leaders that they are. But without training, I think there is a lack of common language and common understanding. That's a jumping off point for difficult conversations and greater collaboration across differences.

I am an advocate for training. I think the content needs to be strong. I think the content needs to be unbiased. I also think even in talking about bias, we all recognize that there is conscious bias, but there's also unconscious bias. There is no training that is going to fix unconscious bias. We all have it. It is how the brain works. But you can create greater awareness through something like unconscious bias training. You can create greater awareness by making people aware of what might be considered a microaggression or how to deal with adversity in the workplace if somebody says the wrong thing or how to talk about race in the workplace or any number of topics.

I think tools and training is just one piece of the equation that should be part of a foundation of tools to drive a culture of inclusion and to equip people. You can't expect leaders just to know what it means to be an inclusive leader. You have to say these are some of the behaviors of an inclusive leader, and you might even have the opportunity to cultivate those behaviors in leaders through a training process. But training has to be applied, and it has to be in an environment where people feel safe, feel psychological safety, feel like they can make mistakes and have difficult conversations.

Part of the essence of your question was when training takes the approach of naming and shaming. I don't know that that is necessarily the right approach either, because then you just get people that shut down, close off, don't feel like they are part of the journey and the strategy for diversity, equity and inclusion at the firm, and certainly are afraid to make mistakes, and therefore, would rather just not address it, talk about it or take on the opportunity to have a greater understanding about what diversity, equity and inclusion is and what it is to build their cultural fluency and even to build their relationships across people of difference that they may or may not have in the workplace.

I think people have to keep an open mind and understand that everybody's lived experience is different. That is what people bring to these trainings. Even in having these conversations and sharing what those experiences are, that everyone is open about how they feel, why they have that perception and the focus is on how do we move forward from that. Having those difficult conversations and open conversations also requires people to make themselves vulnerable. Most of us are not really willing to make ourselves vulnerable in the workplace. Especially with senior leaders, so many senior leaders also feel like they have to have the answers to all the questions. That creates an environment where there is more talking than listening. And instead of listening and trying to have a dialogue, people immediately go to the problem-solving, which, you have to understand the problem first.

I do think that if people did more listening, made themselves vulnerable and really understood the different lived experiences of people of different backgrounds, that would set the table to get to the place where training could really have an impact because there is a lot of learning happening and it is based on lived experiences and dialogue versus getting talked at or just a race to say what is or isn't true. Perception is reality for so many and without honest dialogue, you may never actually get to the answer or understand what might be the nuance between your perception and reality.

The first people that come to my mind are my parents and my family. I think having the benefit of a stable home life and having role models, having people who were invested in my education and my future and who gave me a sense of purpose from a very young age, as well as who gave me a sense of obligation in terms of to whom much is given, much is required, and that I was to have gratitude and give back for everything and every opportunity that I was afforded. That was who my parents, who my dad was, who my mom is, what my brother and sisters and I learned coming up. I was the youngest of 5. I had a lot of role models, and I also was always trying to keep up with my older siblings. I think that was a great motivator as well. I think that focus on education. I want to go back to that, because even earlier we spoke about just how many pieces of the puzzle there are to the economic cycles of families and backgrounds, and where you live dictates the schools that you have, the schools and the education that you have dictates where you can go to college or not. There are so many different feeder pools and variables that can impact the trajectory of one's future. My parents invested in my education early on and the return on that investment led me to Stuyvesant High School, college and graduate school at Columbia. I really am grateful to them for investing in my education for those primary school years as well.

I sure do. Absolutely. Now, Deputy Mayor, we are very proud.

I just hope to leave a legacy having to lead on diversity, equity and inclusion being here at Citi, leading on diversity, equity, inclusion and talent. We are a large global firm in almost 100 countries. We can have an impact not just within Citi, but in every country, we are a major employer, where we are. I want the work to have an impact. I want the work to become systemic and lasting, and I want the work to become business as usual so that diversity, equity and inclusion is everybody's job. It is just part of how leaders lead and how we do business. I hope that the challenges that generations before me that I faced on what some people assume are not opportunities for women, people of color, people of different sexual orientations, people with different abilities. I hope that we get to that human centered approach and that focus on intellectual capacity, ability, creating opportunities and not having to worry about anything but succeeding in those opportunities and having them available to all and creating really true meritocracy.

I mentioned that I went to Stuyvesant High School, and I went at a time before people had private tutors and academies for the exam. It was a very diverse environment and it was a meritocracy. I have always felt like I have experienced meritocracy, the beauty of diversity, the outcomes and innovation that comes from diversity at a very young age. I have seen it happen and work and be a natural part of an ecosystem at a high performing institution like a Stuyvesant High School.

I think if that could be replicated in the corporate workplace and at places like Citi, where you have the opportunity to be successful based on the work that you put in and your capacity to succeed and not all the other factors like biases, unconscious or otherwise, that people place on you. Wouldn't that be a great thing for my children, their children and so forth? I don't mean just for my family, of course. I mean for generations of people of difference.

Yeah, even I would say we have evolved over the last 3 years. I think the humanity that we all became keenly aware of in the wake of a global pandemic and even the greater understanding of where there were disproportionate impacts or even what roles are essential. All of that awareness has evolved us as a society. We still have a ways to go, but I do think there has been progress made and I hope that it continues.

Thank you so much and the same to you. I appreciate your friendship, your leadership and love the work that we have done together and the work that we will do together in the future.