 Good evening. Welcome to this press conference on closing the disability inclusion gap towards more inclusive reporting. We're live here from Davos, Switzerland, at annual meeting 2023. Welcome everyone in the room and welcome everyone from the online audience. I am delighted to be joined by a wonderful panel of experts to share their insights on how to advance the disability inclusion to the business leadership agenda and the importance of adding disability data to ESG ecosystem. My name is Saidi. I'm the media lead at the World Economic Forum and I'd like to introduce you to the panel. To my immediate left is Caroline Casey, founder and director from the value 500. Welcome Caroline. To her left is James Harding, founder and editor, co-founder and editor to Attaist Media, United Kingdom. And next to James is Julie Tiglund, EY's area managing partner for Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. Last but not least is Yuko Kitakaze, chief sustainability officer from Danzu Group, Japan. Very happy to have you all here, my fellow panelists. I read a recent article from the Time magazine. It pointed out that equality of gender, race and sexuality have risen up the ranks of importance to become issues that are addressed in the boardrooms. However, disabilities are being neglected and disability matters are largely excluded from the boardroom discussions. So at the annual meeting 2019 here in Davos four years ago, a community of 500 CEOs called Value 500 are created. They're working together to advance the disability inclusion. Today we are here altogether to launch another initiative led by this powerful community. We are launching a new report called ESG and disability data, a call for inclusive reporting. Without further ado, let me turn it to Caroline who's leading this report. So Caroline, let us know what is disability data? Why is it so important and what are the key challenges in disability inclusion? The floor is yours. Thank you, Daddy. I'm just going to take a moment. You did my job for me. It's fantastic to be back here again. It's fantastic to have Tortoise Media as our partner in this work and EY is one of our iconics in Danzu, where we have 53 companies from Japan. That was the global first and when we conceived of launching the Value 500 on the main stage of Davos in 2019, everybody said it was impossible. And we built it in two years and two months. And now just to give you some sense of that scale, we represent 22 million employees, 23 trillion market cap, 41 headquarter countries and 64 sectors. And that's something extraordinary. And I'm very proud and very grateful. But, you know, I have to say I remember when we were launching this and people were sort of rolling their eyes to heaven and going, well, like, is it possible? And then when they do build it really, what will they do when we're back? Don't ever let an Irish woman away with anything like that. When you build something of that scale, and we are the second biggest global partnership of CEOs and businesses in the world after UN Global Compact. So when you build something that what are you going to do with that? You know, I am so tired of these holding patterns of hope and excuses that we all make. So we have to have accountable action. And what makes the Value 500 so unique to anything that exists in the world is if we were to bring the collective power of the Value 500 and their brands and their CEOs and their employees and their supply chains to focus areas in barriers that are in the system that keep disability out, then we're going to talk about actionable change. And so what we are now doing with the Value 500 in the next three years, we are going to mobilize our 500 companies around three areas for impact. One is getting disabled talent into the C-suite of tomorrow. The next is increasing representation and external communications of our Value 500 companies by 25%. But today, we're here to launch the big one. It is shocking about the absence of disability data in business. Actually, it is shocking about the absence of disability data anywhere. We've always believed in the Value 500. We cannot end the disability exclusion crisis with that business meaningfully at the table. But it's not enough to have them here and it's not enough to have us, but we need data. Without data, we can't manage anything. So what are we going to do? We are launching a white paper today. We do hard things in the Value 500 and our challenge is to get our 500 companies putting disability performance into their annual reports by the end of 2025. Now, the good news is 22% of our companies, which is 110 of them, do report on some disability performance, but it's like dinosaurs and apples. It's so different, right? And you need to have a standardized approach so it's materially important for us and really gives us the information and the data that's useful. So we said, let's come up with standardized metrics. Right. So what do you do? Well, you go out to your community and you talk to organizations like EY and Microsoft and Apple and it's been led by Allianz and Elsag and we say, okay, what are those? And we've come up with five from the absolute very difficult to the achievable. So they are self ID, the big hot potato. It's about goals. Are you setting goals and you're putting budgets behind that around disability activity? Where's your training? Employee resource groups? And do you have an executive and do you have a budget behind it and accessibility? Now, what makes this great? Just for a moment, I want you to think about this. If we have our 500 companies reporting on one or five of those by 2025, don't tell me that's not going to make change. It will, because what that is going to do, it will trigger metrics to be put into disability performance, not disability, business performance tools in the world. And when it's there, it gets noticed and things get done. And what does success look like? Well, yeah, great. It's going to be fantastic in sustainability reports and annual reports. Oh, magic. We should be delighted with ourselves. No, we're not. I want it on earnings calls. I want companies competing on disability performance and I want to see D in the ESG. And so just as I promised, when I promised everybody, we would not just do some simple tick boxing. Not only are we going to hold our valuable 500 companies to account with us in partnering on these measurements, but we, the valuable 500 are making a promise to everybody here. We're going to hold ourselves to account. And so on the 3rd of December 2025, which is the UN Day for People with Disabilities in Tokyo, we will have the biggest and first accountability event on disability business performance. And we will track and we will release those results. Don't say we aren't going to do what we said we were going to do. Thank you. Thank you so much, Julie, for this very passionate, very passionate speech and also very meaningful initiative. Now let me turn to James. You are the co-founder of Totois Media and you are about slow news and what's driving the news. What do you think the media could contribute in this topic? You would expect me to say this, but it's really simple. Report it. Report it. And actually, what happened when Caroline came to us was that we'd started a project called the Responsible 100. And we were trying to track the FTSE 100 companies against the UN Sustainable Development Goals. And Caroline and the valuable 500 came to us and said, actually, but they didn't say it quite like this. This was the truth. We've got a better idea than your idea. And the idea was let's take those companies and take a specific look at disability reporting. And what we found, and this is the reason why I say report it, is that there are two jobs here. There's a job for companies, report it, and there's a job for the media, report it. And what we found was, first off, the companies just weren't reporting it. I mean, I think last year, there were about 16 companies and the FTSE 100 and the UK's largest publicly listed companies, simply by dint of the fact that, thanks to the valuable 500 and Caroline's work, people are aware of the fact that their reporting gets seen. That numbers just inched up to 19 companies. The first year we reported it, we asked companies, because they weren't reporting this data, we asked them, how many senior executives report any disability? None. None. We said that can't be right. None. We went back and did it again. None. Now, this year it's three. Now, what that tells you is that companies aren't reporting it. But the reason why I think that what the valuable 500 is doing, what Caroline's doing, what this white paper is doing is so important, is I had one really, really amazing experience. So as you can hear, you know, when Caroline kind of gets going, everyone's like, okay, we're with you. I was at an event towards the end of last year. And afterwards, the chair of a big bank, I said, what do you think? They said, oh, you know, the truth is, I got a lot of these events. But listening to Caroline Casey, they said, it made me think that in my bank, we don't report our disability data at all. And as a result of it, he said, as it happens, they were about to appoint someone quite high up in the bank who's blind. And for the first time, they were going to report it and make it public. And the impact he said that that would have within the bank on employees who have disabilities, but also even more importantly, on people who would like to apply for work at the bank was going to be transformational. And the reason why I think there is something here, something really simple, which is if companies reported, and the white paper sets out KPIs, which mean that everyone is essentially reporting the same things, we can then go and compare it. And then the media reports it, and we'll be able to watch now which media reports it and which don't. You'll just see, I think in the way which Caroline describes, a very deliberate and actually quite quick change in expectations of the biggest businesses and with the business generally. So that's why I think that what the valuable 500 has done in a relatively short period of time, two and a bit years, I was one of those people Caroline who looked at you. That's a good thing to do. I wonder whether anything will happen. You know, two and a bit years is absolutely extraordinary. And look, we're just two and a bit years from Japan and from that moment in December, we will actually be able to look and be able to see business performance on disability. And I think you'll just see a cultural change in companies. I think the most difficult probably would be from zero to one. You've already made that step. And now we're only looking forward to much more and much faster potential, exponential, exponentially change. And now I'm turning to you, Julie. I know that UI has been quite proactive in this approach. Could you share with us what are the call to actions on your end? What can you share as insights from your company? Yeah, fantastic. So first, I just want to say to Caroline and everybody involved. This is such an inspiration. I think if we don't move to measuring things, things don't happen. But but measurement and just measuring and getting transparent and that call to action to actually voluntarily come forward makes a huge difference. Not just because you're measuring progress on any journey, you don't know where you're going to unless you know where you've come from. But I also think and Caroline, you mentioned this. Transparency creates a healthy competition, a healthy acceleration. And driving that helps us get better at what we are. But I also think transparency and the reporting on this creates a recognition, a recognition that we see you and you belong. And I think that's really important. So at EY, we've established a leader for disability, a group that works across the area, including in my area of responsibility across Europe, Middle East, India and Africa. I have a fantastic gentleman from Bitsky that leads this globally sitting at our global executive. We are making a call for for people to come forward with volunteers. And we have discrete actions to making work at EY come to life for them, whether they're blind, whether they have a disability, no matter what that disability is. And let me be clear, a disability can happen to anyone at any time. And the majority are not visible. At EY, we've started a storing telling mission where we're asking people to share their stories to make them feel at home. And so if it's okay, I've shared mine globally within my EY community, I have a disability, I'm more than 50% deaf. And it makes it difficult for people for me sitting in meetings. I speak with a very loud voice. Some people find that amusing. It's because I am deaf. I sit in certain places in a room so that I can hear better. That's something, when I share my story, huge support. And that drives a feeling of belonging. Yeah, I just, I have to thank you because you know that EY did a piece of research before we launched the value of 500. And that said, 7% of our C-suite have a disability, but four out of five were not talking about it. And I hit my disability up until 20 years ago. You have no idea. When you start to speak about your experience and we know it exists in the top, we know that. Do you know that those choices that you make as a leader is about the culture you're creating? And that, that to me is exciting. So I just want to say you just keep proving my point. And thank you for doing that. Thank you. Thank you so much to you, Julie and to Caroline for sharing your stories. This would change a lot by sharing stories. It's, it's also a very difficult step to, to go forward as well. Now, Yuko, so in the context of Japan, how does it translate to disability inclusion? Yeah. The history of DENZU is one of human potential. And DENZU originally developed through the advertising business. And advertising businesses do not have products or factories like consumer goods manufacturers, manufacturers and infrastructure companies. So there are only ideas, the result of creative spirit. And therefore, DENZU's investments are investments in people. And DENZU's growth is the growth of people. So we believe people have unlimited potential and this belief is reflected on, reflected in DENZU's business, seeing us expand beyond our original boundaries. Starting with the advertising business, we proceeded to create our media business, sports and content business, and ID and consulting businesses. So our employment of people with disabilities is also built upon this fundamental belief. Since our competence is dependent upon the potential of people, our employment of people with disabilities is not just about hiring people with disabilities, but also about expanding their potential in addition to that of all our employees. And in order to bring out the potential of people with disabilities in our business, we promote accessible offices and accessibility of information, more than many other companies, and provide opportunities for many people with disabilities, including many para athletes to play active roles in our advertising business. In this way, while utilizing the power of people with disabilities in our core business, we are also trying to create new opportunities, new opportunities for people with disabilities to play active roles with our own ideas. Take agriculture, for example. At first glance, there is no connection between advertising and agriculture, but based on our experience in employing people with disabilities, we have realized that there is a good compatibility between people with intellectual and mental disabilities, between mental disabilities and agriculture. So we are now employing people with disabilities in agriculture. We not only employ them, but also apply our knowledge of marketing and branding in our core business to add high value to the vegetables they grow. And we use our ideas to improve the quality of life, not only for the people with disabilities employed by our company, but also for people with disabilities throughout society as a whole. We are working with local governments, governments to promote projects that employ people with disabilities and brand their products. We are also involved in career advancement education aimed at people with disabilities. So through such experiences, we have found that not only the people with disabilities we employ, but also the able-bodied people who work with them have grown as well. We will continue to expand the possibilities of our employees and by extension, the possibilities of all humankind by expanding the potential of people with disabilities. So that's our challenge. That's very encouraging to see actually value 500 companies are doing such efforts to help raising awareness of the issue and to actually bring the benefit to the expanded community. I'd like to maybe see if there's any questions in the audience. We have a couple of mics in the room. Please do let us know. If not, I do have a question. We're well able to talk more. Okay, Carol, I just want to say if you listen to the stories both of EY and Densu, and if we can get those stories reported, and I think one of the things we have to remember it's the power of stories that we're telling backed up by evidence. So that evidence and that data is going to drive the change. So at the moment these are stories right there and the stories and they're great. But if we were able to gather together to reporting the 500 of them and to extrapolate the data to see where we need to move next, to see what it is that you need. You've got to remember with the valuable 500 it's organisations like this who are trying to help us to find the areas where there's commonality. So that we can actually push our efforts towards that. So that it stops just being anecdotal but something that's very meaningful. And the one thing I just want to say Caroline is that one of the things I loved about what you've done, what the valuable 500 has done, is that I think great campaigning, like journalism when it works, has the Spider-Man principle, which is with great power comes great responsibility. And I sit there and I listen to you and then I think, look at EY, an organisation that employs hundreds of thousands of people, set standards for thousands, tens of thousands of companies and Densu that reaches millions, tens of millions of people. The thing that the valuable 500 has done, which is brilliant, is that we start with you. It's not just about you, but we start with you and the capacity is to reach such an enormous number of people. And that's why I think that there is something brilliant here about its simplicity. If all of the companies in the valuable 500 report, if all of the companies that work with companies like EY and Densu report, you're seeing a really short period of time to change. And their supply chains. And your supply chains. And I love the way, because that is the ripple effect. Look, we know there's 163 million companies in the world. I know that 500 may not seem a lot, but remember, these are some of most influential brands and they're actually putting their neck on the line for this. But also what we are asking for is to ensure that this is not an add-on or a bolt-on to something else. We're asking for disability to be integrated and normalised and interwoven into your business, into your strategies, not stuck in DE and I. And I think that's what's important, saying I love what you said, Yoku, about this is not just about disabilities, it's about everyone. So we rise to tide for us all. And we know that employees that are covering, it costs their productivity something like 30%? I think Harvard did something on that. So when you're covering the productivity of the company but it's also the pain of the person carrying it too. So that's again the story, the head and the heart. That's the statistic. And then you've got the human being that's there as well. Absolutely. And also this is a huge number of people that this is touching. I read in an article that I think about 50% of the world population actually do have... 54% is touched by the 1.3 billion who currently have a disability. Julie's right, it's 80% is invisible, 80% is acquired between the ages of 18 and 64. But with the mother and the father of that 1.3, you're talking about 54% of our global economy. And just let me give you perspective when we're all talking about constricted growth. That is 13 trillion, right? That is a differentiator for your clients or for your advertising. So this, you know, I don't believe we should be having to make the case for this anymore because I actually think this is a risk to business, particularly when Gen Z are coming along. But you got to remember that that is a huge portion of the population and what business who is interested in growth turns their back on that. Absolutely. I think we are closing to the time. So I would like to thank everybody on the panel for this very passionate topic. And I really hope by 2025 we would have seen a big change, big shift in this disability inclusion reporting. Can I end by one thing? Because you cannot let me leave the room. I want to come back to something that James says. The most exciting thing is when somebody reports on something dreadful, meaning a really no number, just report. Yes. Just start. You've got, you know, when you think about our valuable five companies, they've got three years to do this. It's not the number, it's just the not reporting. So just start. And Karen, by the way, Dider, you're never going to get rid of us. The other thing, the reason why I think that's so difficult is, you know, when you listen to Julie, when you feel just the emotion in that moment that you spoke to me, I think you've got to be honest that, like, for a lot of companies, they're frightened. And they're frightened for good reason. They don't want to get it wrong. One of the things that I think that you've done here, Caroline, is you said, okay, we've worked out what the standards are. This is what we'd like everyone to do and it makes it easier for companies in general. And then, you know, you'll do what you just did and you can just imagine the impact that we'll have on other people that you work with. So I think that there's a kind of very human personal thing. You know, the numbers are enormous, but there's a very personal individual thing here that I think you've done that's amazing. Especially when, like, 50% one of two person would be touched by it. And, sorry, I've got one other thing to say, which is I know you're good by it, which is about you, which is if you, if you live at a time like this and you think to yourself there's nothing you can do, Caroline Casey, you can do things. You can do things in a short period of time that change the way the world works. And I really think that's important, because I think a lot of the time we see that I'm thinking. Nothing's going to happen. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. And can I just be one of you? I don't know what we do. I'm going to, we are going to end on this part. It's just, can I just remember there are, I'm only one person and we have a team of 22 people in our amazing organization, all who are touched by disability, who have worked at the very beginning with no money, with harsh and conviction. And I just want to, you're all out there, gorgeous team. Thank you for the huge amount of work and our partners. This is not done alone. And that's why this is radical collaboration and action I hope is going to prove and results. And I want to thank the World Economic Forum for continuously letting us come up here. Thank you so much. And thank you, Julie, for leading this very impactful initiative. On this note, I will end this press conference. Thank you, everybody in the room. And thank you for the online audience. Goodbye. And good night. Bye-bye.