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Tristan Walker, Founder and CEO of Walker & Company

Published on09 SEP 2020
Topic:
Making Progress Towards Racial Equity

In this episode of Talks at GS, Tristan Walker discusses his company’s mission to create health and beauty products for people of color, navigating the retail landscape during the pandemic and fostering greater diversity in the corporate world.

On the mission behind founding his company: “It just felt like [people of color] were treated like second class citizens in a world where we spend more money on this stuff than anyone else. We're the most culturally influential demographic group in the world [and the] most early adopting demographic group in the world. We deserve better.”

On fostering greater diversity in the corporate world: “The motivation has to exist in order to make this change happen… We all read the same research that says more diversity leads to more profitable outcomes. It's almost as if we all have a fiduciary duty to our company to make that happen. And if that's the case and it's not happening, there's no motivation for it. There's only so much work that I can do – only so many organizations that I can build [and] only so many board seats that I can have. But the management of those teams, the moneyed interests who can invest in these companies actually have to have the motivation. And it's not only motivation to change, but also to have a different kind of experience.”

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