Talent Makers

Expert Insights: Porter Braswell

Please share a bit of your background, and specifically the founding story of your company.

I am the CEO and co-founder of Jopwell, the leading career advancement platform for Black, Latinx, and Native American students and professionals. Jopwell was born when my co-founder, Ryan Williams, and I were working in finance. In addition to our day-to-day jobs on the trading floor, we were often asked to support diversity recruiting efforts at our company. Ryan and I saw a disconnect; in finance, and across other industries, recruiting and hiring teams said they didn't know how to reach communities of color, which created a concerning absence of a clear hiring pipeline. We knew there had to be a way to attract diverse talent at scale. So, we left Wall Street to build Jopwell. Jopwell has facilitated tens of thousands of connections between our community and over 300 partner organizations, including Spotify, UBS, and the PGA.

What comes to mind regarding things that organizations often get wrong about their diversity initiatives, and that ultimately lead to a lack of diversity?

Organizations often make diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives the responsibility of one person or one team, and it shouldn't be. For diversity initiatives to be successful, leaders within the organization need to play an active role and set the tone for company-wide participation and support. Organizations recognize they have challenges pertaining to DE&I, but ...