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Commission on Economic Inclusion

Created in December 2000, the Commission on Economic Inclusion, a program of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, is a broad-based coalition of more than 100 Northeast Ohio employers who are committed to making the region’s diversity a source of economic strength.

Our members, listed below, have a combined workforce of close to 200,000 individuals in Northeast Ohio and more than 575,000 employees throughout the U.S. The Commission serves as a catalyst for advancing economic inclusion in the Northeast Ohio business community. Our key objective is to achieve demonstrated successes that lead to positive, measurable outcomes including:

• Increases in board, senior management, workforce and supplier diversity among our members that include Northeast Ohio public-sector entities, private-sector companies and nonprofit organizations
• Increases in the total revenue, value, size, and number of employees for minority-owned businesses

Learn more about the Commission

E-mail Deborah Bridwell, senior director of inclusion initiatives, or call (216) 592-2345.

News from the Commission

From the November issue of the Commission Connection e-newsletter: Q&A with Kenneth Bouyer, national inclusion director for Ernst & Young LLP, keynote speaker at the Commission on Economic Inclusion’s Senior Executive Forum on Dec. 5.

• Q: Ernst & Young has been recognized for its efforts in maintaining a diverse culture with a number of awards, including FORTUNE's "100 Best Companies to Work For" for 12 consecutive years, Hispanic Business magazine's Diversity Elite Top 60 for Hispanics, and as a DiversityInc magazine's Top 50 Company for Diversity. What are some of the strategies that have helped the firm achieve this recognition?

Bouyer: Our diversity strategy and development efforts create strategies and programs that support career development, workforce planning, communication and leadership accountability on behalf of our minority professionals. Much focus is placed on education, mentoring and networking, which not only exemplifies our support for diverse professionals but also seeks to engage all of our people to be catalysts and change agents for creating an inclusive and respectful work environment.

Support for these efforts starts at the most senior levels of Ernst & Young. Our Americas Executive Board and senior leadership have taken defined roles for growing our diverse culture.

• Q: How does the work of your Inclusiveness Recruiting Team help drive Ernst & Young’s diversity strategy?

Bouyer: Maintaining an inclusive environment at Ernst & Young — one in which all of our people can achieve their potential — is the main focus of our Inclusiveness Recruiting Team. Team members work with national and local organizations that promote the interest of minority groups and diverse professionals while encouraging the leaders of tomorrow. As a result of our efforts, team leaders are often called upon to share best practices and participate as speakers and panelists at professional events.

• Q: What are some of your diversity programs and initiatives?

Bouyer: We have several. They include

Accounting Career Awareness Program (ACAP) – One-week summer programs held at colleges and universities introduce minority high-school students to the professional workforce and encourage them to consider pursuing accounting careers.

Leadership and Development (LEADS) – We join the University of Illinois College of Business to sponsor LEADS, a program to introduce high-school students to business and accounting careers.

Minority scholarships – In the recent past, with the help of the Ernst & Young Foundation, we have committed more than $7.5 million to fund scholarships for undergraduate and graduate degree candidates majoring in accounting, IT, finance and related subjects.

Multi-year internships – We provide students with the opportunity to intern as part of our Horizon Internship Program, a developmental program that over 300 interns participate in each year. We source candidates through nonprofit organizations, such as INROADS and through our own sourcing efforts on campus.

• Click here to read more about how Ernst & Young maintains a diverse culture.
• Click here to access recent e-news issues and our library of publications.