On Sept. 25 a group of manufacturers, including some of the largest names in the sector, pledged to take 50,000 tangible actions to increase equity and parity for underrepresented communities, They will create 300,000 pathways to job opportunities for Black people and all people of color.
The actions will be overseen by The Task Force on Closing the Opportunity Gap, which grew out the National Association of Manufacturers’ Pledge of Action, announced in June.
The task force says the purpose of these actions is to ensure that manufacturing reflects the diversity of the overall U.S. workforce by 2030.
The Manufacturing Institute, the NAM’s workforce development and education partner, will collect individual commitments from companies to ensure that the goal of 50,000 actions is met by 2025 and that the industry reaches its diversity goals by 2030.
“Our industry plays an integral role in lifting up people and communities,” said Mike Lamach, Trane Technologies CEO “and now we have a special obligation to stand with and support all people who face injustice. We must play a part in tearing down the persistent and pernicious structural barriers to opportunity in this country.”
Members of the task force include the following:
- Task Force Chair: Mike Lamach, chairman and CEO, Trane Technologies and NAM Board chair
- Dev Ahuja, SVP and CFO, Novelis Inc.
- Alejandro Alvarez, SVP, chief production officer and sustainability officer, Brown-Forman Corporation
- Neil Chapman, senior vice president, Exxon Mobil Corporation
- Julie Copeland, CEO, Arbill
- Mark Cordova, president, Centennial Bolt, Inc.
- Chris Edwards, Co-CEO, Edward Marc Brands, Inc.
- Jim Fitterling, chairman and CEO, Dow Inc. and NAM Board vice chair
- Vicki Holt, president and CEO, Protolabs and NAM Small and Medium Manufacturers Group vice chair
- Frederick Humphries, corporate VP, U.S. government affairs, Microsoft Corporation
- Vimal Kapur, president and CEO, Honeywell Building Technologies
- Lawrence Kurzius, chairman, president and CEO, McCormick & Company, Inc.
- Mike McDermott, president, Pfizer global supply, Pfizer, Inc.
- Aneesa Muthana, president and CEO, Pioneer Service Inc.
- Chris Nielsen, EVP – product support and chief quality officer, Toyota Motor North America
- Quentin Roach, SVP – global supply chain and chief procurement officer, Mondelez International
- Kathy Wengel, EVP, chief global supply chain officer, Johnson & Johnson
- Chris Womack, president, external affairs, Southern Company
