Roz Brewer, an exceptional Black female businesswoman, is making history as she paves the way for racial and gender diversity in a Fortune 500 board room. On March 15, 2021, Roz Brewer will take over as Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of Walgreens Boots Alliance (“WBA”), the parent company of the pharmacy chain Walgreens. (Anne Moffat & Jeff Green, Bloomberg Law News). WBA’s decision to hire Brewer comes with high expectations. She has previously showcased her business acumen during her time as a C-suite executive for other Fortune 500 companies and her anti-racism impact in the corporate realm. Once effective, Brewer will be the only Black female CEO of an S&P 500 company since Ursula Burns left Xerox in 2016. (Jena McGregor, The Philadelphia Inquirer). She will be one of three women currently holding the title of CEO at a major drug store company. (Walter Loeb, Forbes).

Brewer has built quite an impressive resume for herself over the years. She began her career at Kimberly-Clark as a scientist, remained at that company for twenty-two years, then was the president of its Nonwovens sector in 2004. (Walter Loeb, Forbes). She has sat on the board of directors for powerhouses such as Amazon and Lockheed Martin. (Jena McGregor, The Philadelphia Inquirer).  Before Brewer's career as Chief Operating Officer ("COO") of Starbucks, she worked her way up from a regional Vice President position with Walmart to President of Walmart East and finished her time with Walmart as the CEO of Sam's Club from 2012 to 2017. (Walter Loeb, Forbes). After leaving Sam’s Club Brewer started her career with Starbucks. Id. At Starbucks, Brewer increased the active rewards members by fifteen percent by the end of 2020, with a total of 21.8 million members. (Anne Moffat & Jeff Green, Bloomberg Law News). Starbucks’ operations in China are back to the same store sales expansion prior to the pandemic, and the United States is on track to return to positive territory this quarter post-pandemic shutdowns. Id.

WBA’s decision to hire Brewer over competitors is largely due to her incredible work as the Chief Operating Officer of Starbucks. (Anne Moffat & Jeff Green, Bloomberg Law News). Brewer has been recognized for her enhancement of Starbucks’ digital sales, improvements in operations for China and the United States, and impressive leadership skills she exemplified over her years as a business professional. Id. WBA stated these accomplishments outweigh her lack of experience in the health care industry. Id.

Arguably, Brewer’s most important contribution to Starbucks was her commitment to advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion. (Marguerite Ward, Business Insider).  In 2018, an incident occurred where two young black males were at a Starbucks waiting for their business partners and a white female barista called the police, resulting in both of the individuals being arrested. Id. Video footage made its way to the internet, protests ensued, accusations of racism were being spread against Starbucks. Id. Brewer’s response to this incident is an accurate representation of her leadership skills and commitment to anti-racism. Brewer, alongside Starbucks CEO, Kevin Johnson, met with men who were arrested to apologize. Id. They addressed the incident publicly, admitted fault, and swiftly took company-wide action. Id. Brewer pushed Starbucks to close all US stores for four hours of racial bias training a month after the incident and scheduled twelve more trainings to discuss topics such as empathy, team building, and inclusion for approximately 175,000 employees. (Marguerite Ward, Business Insider & Beth Kowitt & Claire Zillman, Fortune). Starbucks also updated its store policy and decided to tie executive pay to diversity targets. (Beth Kowitt & Claire Zillman, Fortune). Brewer has been applauded for her leadership and implementation of anti-racist policies following the 2018 incident, and her response has created a blueprint for many other corporate executives in handling similar issues. (Anne Moffat & Jeff Green, Bloomberg Law News).

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, there has been a larger push for corporations to take action to invest in diversity and inclusion. (Heather Haddon, Wall Street Journal). The protests and pressures from shareholders, lawmakers, consumers, and banks have collectively been the catalyst for companies to accelerate their efforts to confront racial inequality more directly. (Marguerite Ward, Business Insider). I believe the following three changes should be considered on a national level to jump-start a path to increase opportunities for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (“BIPOC”), and to avoid performative justice. These changes should be viewed as a floor, not a ceiling.

First, companies should commit to fostering an inclusive environment through self-educating. It is not the job of BIPOC to educate the rest of society on why BIPOC are underrepresented in C-suite positions but necessary for well-rounded business decisions. Companies should partner with organizations focused on building diverse environments, such as the NAACP, National Diversity Council, and other similar organizations, to host “learning sessions” for the company. This is especially convenient now with the increased use of video conferencing and webinars. While I believe that the racial bias training sessions and discussions, as Brewer implemented with Starbucks, are important, jumping into those trainings without prior self-education is less likely to be as influential on employees.

The second is to create opportunities for growth within the business. One approach would be to create a structured mentorship. A structured mentorship program would provide young diverse talent with opportunities from the beginning of their careers within the company, which should create a pipeline to break the glass ceilings currently in place. Brewer suggested that executive leaders should be responsible for the development of young diverse talent to make sure they are getting exposure to speaking with C-suite level employees. (Rosalind G. Brewer, TedTalk). A second approach, which is not mutually exclusive from the first, would be for companies to create committees that solely strive to implement and maintain policies in the furtherance of these goals.

Third, the decision-making power for hiring employees needs to be diverse to increase overall diversity within corporations. The hiring process is drastically affected by affinity bias. (Courtney Connley, CNBC). Affinity bias is “the idea that individuals have a favorable bias towards others who remind them of themselves or have similar experiences as them.” Id. Seeing that a majority of high-level executives are white, most of which are male, it is possible that a favorable bias towards white males exists because of affinity bias (Stacy Jones, Fortune). It is monumental that Brewer, as a woman of color, has held executive positions for multiple Fortune 500 companies in a white, male-dominated field. However, Brewer is one of only three women to hold the CEO position of a Fortune 500 company, thus young women of color do not have mentors who have an affinity bias towards them.

A major pitfall that many corporations are guilty of implementing in an attempt to increase diversity is focusing more on the numbers and less on fostering a diverse and inclusive environment at work and within their community. (Rosalind G. Brewer, TedTalk). There is a common misunderstanding that there is not BIPOC talent available when in reality the talent exists but it is wildly underdeveloped. Id. BIPOC representation is underdeveloped largely due to companies’ focus on reaching metrics rather than putting effort into changing the environment for BIPOC individuals to feel comfortable and have their voices heard in conversations within the workplace. Id. Not only does the focus on a metric goal fail to create the inclusive environment desired, it is a form of performative justice that also faces constitutional challenges. Implementing a quota-like target based on someone’s identity without the sufficient rationale, as required under constitutional law, will likely be challenged as unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. (Laura Weiss, CQ Roll Call).

While I concur that having a sole focus on the numbers of diverse employees is a pitfall, I do believe using numbers as a starting point to provide opportunities could have a domino effect propelling BIPOC to high-level decision-making positions. Some laws that have been effectuated which prove this point, and also may have overcome the constitutional standard of review concern include California’s recent laws, AB 979 and SB 826. AB 979 requires boards of public companies based in California to include at least one director that is racially or ethnically diverse, or part of the LGBTQ community by the end of 2021. Id. Additionally, the law implements higher mandates for 2022 based on the board’s size. Id. Authors of AB 979 state that the law passes constitutional muster because of “heightened national focus on racial justice and equality.” Id.

AB 979 is modeled after SB 826, which is a California law passed in 2018 that requires the representation of women on corporate boards. Id. While gender-based laws face a lower standard of review than race-based laws, many attempted challenges have failed, which provides hope that mechanisms such as AB 979 could also potentially stand.  Id. The results of SB 826 also provide insight into the effectiveness of such laws. As of mid-2020, female representation had risen by eight percent since the law’s effectuation, hitting twenty-five percent, surpassing the national average. Id. The increase in female representation is historical but unequal. A majority of the women hired to California company boards were white, leading to the drafting of AB 979. Id. This use of a metric initially could be the fire that corporate boards need to start the process of fostering an inclusive environment, but it should not and cannot be the sole target and resolution.

Brewer is making history with her CEO position with WBA. She is paving the way for not just women, but women of color in high-level positions at top-grossing companies across the world. Roz Brewer's anti-racist work has also created guidance for executives and companies on how to address the lack of diversity and inclusion. Following the various, racially charged events in 2020 and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, this moment in time could create the monumental pivot toward enhanced diversity and inclusion that corporate America desperately needs.