 Hello, everyone. It's great to be with you all today to discuss one of the most pressing issues in our society and the innovative ways in which we can and must come together to solve it. My name is Mahalak Ghatacho and I'm the Managing Director of Corporate Racial Equity at PolicyLink. My work focuses on igniting the racial equity movement more broadly and deeply in the business community and building the pathway for the anti-racist, equitable corporate leadership we need today to meet the scale of the challenges before us. For those of you that do not know PolicyLink, we are a Black-led National Research and Action Institute based in Oakland, California, devoted to advancing racial and economic equity. For over two decades, PolicyLink has been building and leading the racial and economic equity movement in America, dedicated to amplifying the wisdom and resilience of people of color and low-income communities in order to remake our social and economic systems to work for all of us, not just some of us. Our guiding ethos in this work is equity. That means the just and fair inclusion into a society in which all of us can participate, prosper and reach our full potential. Centuries of racism, exclusion, and exploitation from all sectors in our society have left over 100 million people in America living at or below the poverty line. That includes half of all people of color in this nation. That also includes one quarter of all white people, all of whom are struggling to make ends meet in the richest nation in the history of humankind. The devastating pandemic and our long overdue national reckoning on racial injustice have thrust this reality into sharp relief and exposed the structural failures of our nation. Re-designing our nation now to effectively serve people of color and ultimately all in our multiracial democracy is our generation's greatest challenge. It is also our greatest opportunity to finally truly live up to our highest ideals. Today, I'm going to talk about how the business community is on the leading edge of the racial and economic equity movement, but they just don't know it yet. Consider these points. America's face is changing. By 2045, people of color will be the majority. Our rising diversity is a tremendous asset if only everyone can access what they need to thrive. If the opposite happens and economic conditions do not improve among people of color, a larger and larger share of the population will struggle to make ends meet. We already know from the National Equity Atlas that racial gaps in income and employment cost our nation over $2 trillion in 2018 alone, and the trillions in losses keep stacking up every year. With the changing face of America, growing economic inequity is not sustainable for our society or our economy. America's priorities are also changing. Now more than ever, business leaders are seen as civic leaders. Workers, customers, communities, and investors all want business leaders to do more on racial and economic equity. According to Just Capital's recent polling, 81% of black Americans and 64% of Americans overall say companies have more work to do to achieve racial equity in America. And according to the latest Edelman Trust Barometer, right now the most trusted institution to do what is right on racism is my employer quote unquote at 73%. As America's face is changing and our priorities are changing, the business community has unparalleled resources and skills sitting right on the table, all within reach to bring about the racial and economic equity we all want. On an annual basis, the nonprofit sector has $1 trillion to address social issues, and our government has $3 trillion. Meanwhile, the private sector has $22 trillion in resources annually. On top of that, business leaders possess unique skills in shifting our legal and regulatory frameworks to their will. When CEOs speak, whether with their dollars or their voices, our politicians and lawmakers invariably listen. Those skills, ably directed and wielded, could unlock the public policy wins we need to finally achieve racial and economic equity. This is why the business community is on the leading edge of the racial and economic equity movement. Business leaders not only possess the right skills and resources to significantly advance the movement, but the changing face and priorities of America means they also have every incentive to do so. So how do we do this together? It starts with the CEO blueprint for racial equity. For over five years now policy link together with FSG, a mission driven consulting firm at the forefront of supporting leaders and creating large scale social change. We have been identifying and amplifying how businesses can advance racial and economic equity as a superior growth model. Our research shows the broad based benefits to all of society when businesses address the needs of the most vulnerable within their ranks, within their communities and across society. Last year, our two organizations came together with Just Capital, a leader in evaluating companies on stakeholder capitalism to release the CEO blueprint for racial equity. The blueprint is the pathway for business leaders to tap into their greatest strengths to significantly advance racial equity across all of their domains of influence within their four walls, within the communities in which they are situated and at the broader societal level. It does so by outlining actions and new ways of operating for businesses across their entire footprint. Within the four walls of the company, that includes paying living wages to all workers and designing products and services that drive racially equitable outcomes. Within communities where businesses are situated, that includes developing authentic and sustained connection to communities beyond charity and annual giving campaigns. At the broader societal level, the blueprint focuses on actions that activate the outsized power of businesses to shape our laws and regulatory frameworks and defend our democracy. By meaningfully adopting the actions outlined in the blueprint across all three domains of corporate influence and impact, businesses have the potential to significantly advance racial and economic equity across our nation. So how are business leaders doing so far on tackling racial injustice and economic inequity? We all see bold new diversity commitments and investments into communities of color announced by businesses almost every day. Businesses have also emerged as a leading source of funding for racial justice efforts. But what is the level of engagement of business leaders in racial equity work beyond their public statements? How are they applying the blueprint, if at all, in their day to day operations? In the months following the release of the blueprint, we sought to answer these questions by interviewing 40 C-suite leaders and senior executives, mostly CEOs, spanning 38 companies across a broad range of industries. Together, the leaders we interviewed employ more than 4.3 million workers. The seven takeaways you see here reflect the most common messages we heard from business leaders and the common barriers we see across companies. Today I'll touch on just a few. The first takeaway is that there's a fear of making mistakes. While business leaders have a deeper awareness of shared complicity in perpetuating inequity and greater commitment to listen and learn, they still fear making mistakes and moving forward, whether it's a fear of saying the wrong thing internally or doing the wrong thing externally. We don't want to mess this up, it was a common theme. The third takeaway is that there's still uncertainty amongst business leaders about the power of equity. While all the possible cases for advancing racial and economic equity have been made effectively for years, the moral case, the business case, and the macroeconomic case, business leaders have not fully embraced all the benefits of advancing racial equity within their workplaces and across society. There's still hesitancy around prioritizing racial equity as a source of business innovation and economic growth. Our fifth takeaway is that there's an overwhelming sense of urgency to take some action, but also tunnel vision about the nature of racial equity work. The combination of these two forces present a significant barrier to more meaningful change. We know and research demonstrates that long-term strategies are more likely to create lasting impact. But many business leaders have this overpowering sense of urgency to respond to the public's expectation of change with quick actions. On top of this, business leaders often think of racial equity work quite narrowly as just about diversifying the workforce and undertaking philanthropic activities. But as you've already heard today, it is so much more than that. You can learn more about our findings and how business leaders can tackle each of these common barriers in our latest report, Corporate Insights into the CEO Blueprint for Racial Equity. So where do these findings lead us? Well, it's clear that business leaders need more guidance in centering equity and justice within their four walls, within their communities and across society. So later this month, we will be releasing an updated CEO blueprint for racial equity, in addition to providing additional strategic guidance for business leaders to move from incremental action to enterprise-wide transformation. Plus, to address the number one question we hear from business leaders, what is everyone else doing? We will share profiles of companies making progress in each domain of influence and impact. We're just a few weeks away now from the release of the new blueprint, and we hope you all stay tuned for that. Looking forward, we know the work ahead for the business community is going to be incredibly challenging. While the blueprint provides a North Star for business leaders, they need more than that to play a productive, long-term role in advancing racial and economic equity. The missing ingredient is a set of standards that sets the bar for what good looks like, embeds accountability, and establishes consistency for how businesses should approach, measure, disclose, and speak publicly about their racial equity journeys within the company, within the communities in which they're situated, and within society. This is the next step to support the private sector as a whole towards more equitable ways of operating. Our three organizations, PolicyLink, Just Capital, and FSG, we are now embarking on a multi-year effort to develop rigorous corporate standards for racial equity, informed by those closest to these challenges and working together with a strong ecosystem of partners, including BLab, the Global Impact Investing Network, and many others. You'll hear more about this effort in the coming months, including how you can get involved by sharing your views, your stories, and your challenges. You know, we've never been where we are right now. Never before has there been so much potential for structural transformation that can finally benefit all Americans. But none of us, including business leaders, can do this work alone. We have to work together to co-create the future we all need. It's up to us right now to align efforts across sectors and collectively take action that is commensurate with the scale of the challenge. Our success, the nation's success, lies in building unlikely alliances to maximize impact. All of us, especially business leaders, need to get comfortable assessing 360 degrees of our influence and impact, setting bold, uncomfortable goals, and then holding ourselves, our colleagues, our peers, and our partners accountable. The business community also needs to get comfortable listening to the voices of racial equity movement leaders whose expertise is absolutely necessary to dismantle the barriers holding back the promise of our nation. From the constitutional convention to reconstruction to the civil rights movement, our nation has too often failed to meet the moment when racial equity was within our grasp. The hundred million cannot wait any longer for change. Tinkering around the edges will not cut it anymore, and being neutral is the same as holding the status quo firmly in place. We're now in an age of accountability, and we must go big and work together to finally remake this nation to work for all of us, not just for some of us. So how are you going to lead in this moment and beyond? What is the legacy you want to leave?