It appears the biopharmaceutical industry is the latest to join the diversity and inclusion movement, seeking to expand underrepresented peoples within its sector. According to a 2014 national survey by Liftstream, “10 percent of board of director slots and 7 to 9 percent of CEO positions were filled by women.” In addition, “half of all biotech boards don’t have a single woman”, making the need for diversity a priority.
With this information, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) launched a diversity initiative in order to make the business case for diversity within the industry. As has been mentioned on this website before, diversity can help financial performance when properly supported. For more information on this, check out our Insights page HERE.
The key to the BIO diversity initiative is taking a page from other industries. According to Stat News, a “series of recent studies examining diversity and financial performance have fueled growing insistence among big-name private equity firms, pension funds, and money managers that their investees hire and promote more diverse talent up the ranks — or risk losing their clients’ capital.”
At the end of the day, money matters, and with the support diversity has garnered in research and studies, there is now a strong business case to at a minimum, take a look at the idea for every company.
For more on the diversity initiative within BIO check out https://www.bio.org/diversity
