As new board chair for the NGLCC Board of Directors, Ernst & Young's LGBTA inclusiveness strategy leader, Chris Crespo, has some big ideas for what has become a thriving LGBT business organization.
Over the years, Crespo, along with other diversity professionals at Ernst & Young, have helped to align the corporation's business practices with the mission of the NGLCC—to bridge the gap between the LGBT business community and large corporations.
But as the NGLCC has evolved and grown since it got its start in 2002, so has the need for new strategies to continue on its successful path, and Crespo looks forward to being a part of the process in her new leadership role.
"I believe that the NGLCC has achieved an incredible amount since its inception, and we are now moving into a different stage—we are no longer a new start-up organization," Crespo said. "As such, we need to ensure the strategic plan is clear and current while challenging enough to continue the fantastic progress of the past."
Crespo has been with Ernst & Young for more than 22 years, starting out in the company's tax practice before moving to human resources, where she now focuses on integrating diversity and inclusion into everyday business processes in North America.
Her diversity and inclusion efforts continued when she co-founded Beyond, Ernst & Young's LGBTA employee resources group, which works with the LGBT community to promote inclusion and attract, inspire, develop and retain LGBT talent at the company.
As Crespo takes on her role as the NGLCC's new board chair, the board has also taken on two new members—Steven Wozencraft, CEO of John O'Donnell Associates, and Michael Fuller, COO of Ingenix International, a division of UnitedHealth Group.
Wozencraft has spent the last 25 years of his professional career working with NGOs and non-profits, and has been a driving force in the world of financial development for these types of organizations. Throughout his career, Wozencraft has worked with organizations including the Empire State Pride Agenda and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, among others.
Currently, Wozencraft consults with private foundations and non-profit and for-profit institutions to help them accomplish their missions by using his expertise and connections with individuals and corporations worldwide.
Prior to joining Ingenix, Fuller served as executive vice president of Berlitz International and served in several executive leadership roles at NGLCC founding partner, IBM. This is a return to the NGLCC board for Fuller, who served previously.
"We are incredibly excited to have Chris in her new role as chair of the board and to have added Steve and Mike to a truly outstanding group of leaders," said Justin Nelson, NGLCC co-founder and president. "We look forward to working with Chris and the entire board to continue the growth of NGLCC."
With these changes and additions to the NGLCC's board of directors, BIZ wanted to sit down for an interview with Chris Crespo to get her perspective on her new role as board chair and her ideas for the continued growth and success of the NGLCC.
BIZ: You've been named Board Chair for the NGLCC—what are your goals as you begin your new role?
CC: My goal is to better involve and leverage the board in the process of making our strategic plan as current as possible while challenging enough to continue making progress. We have some extremely strong board talent that is asking questions and providing guidance that will take the NGLCC to the next level, and with a little more focus, I believe we can achieve even more together.
BIZ: Tell me a little bit about your background with the NGLCC and being on the board.
CC: In a nutshell, I saw Justin speaking at Out & Equal and told him that I would be on his panel the following year because it all just made so much sense. Despite that taking an extra year, they asked me to be on the board and then chair it.
At Ernst & Young, I spent my initial years in the tax practice before moving into human resources, focused on career development for our tax professionals. That journey later took me into our inclusiveness efforts and heading up our LGBTA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allies) inclusion efforts at EY. I'm big on leveraging everybody's strengths. I bring some different strengths that I think match up well with the growth and maturity of the NGLCC. I can be impatient for progress and raise the bar high, but I also strive to pull in the best of everyone to arrive at the best solutions. I strive to find the right balance of collaboration, transparency and focusing on the outcomes. I used to love the A-Team TV series, not because of the plots, but because the mix of misfits—each played a part in their success every week. As Hannibal would say, "I love it when a plan comes together." I'm really excited to be part of the variety and depth of strengths and experiences our board members are bringing to the table.
BIZ: How were you involved in Ernst & Young becoming a partner of the NGLCC?
CC: As part of Beyond (our LGBTA inclusiveness network at EY), we were trying to align all of our Ernst & Young processes connected with diversity and inclusiveness to include LGBT. Our supplier diversity program was another element in that effort. I worked with our inclusiveness executive sponsor and the leader of our supplier diversity program, Theresa Harrison, to build understanding and make it happen. It ended up being a learning opportunity for the NGLCC and for me as well. Theresa Harrison pushed back to ensure NGLCC had a strong certification process that would be comparable to other certification processes. The strength of the process led to confidence in the quality of the NGLCC overall. Theresa is now one of the NGLCC's biggest proponents, co-chairing the NGLCC Procurement Council. Over the years, Theresa and I have teamed up to develop our partnership with the NGLCC to align with our firm's strengths and initiatives, such as with our sponsorship of the Women's Business Initiative.
BIZ: Why is it so important for corporations like Ernst & Young to be involved with organizations like the NGLCC?
CC: It is mutually beneficial to build partnerships between organizations with different outreach and specialties, but some shared purpose, for both building relationships and opportunity. We have a shared purpose in helping people achieve their full potential and supporting entrepreneurship/business growth. We've structured our relationship to involve the people of EY in helping NGLCC achieve its goals, while helping our people get leadership experience, build their networks and leverage their business experience. At the same time, we are supporting an organization that is helping us achieve our supplier diversity goals while encouraging diversity, inclusiveness and business growth. It is a win-win for both organizations. EY is helping the NGLCC achieve its goals, while the NGLCC is helping EY achieve theirs. In the process, we all learn, grow and make the world a better place for the LGBT and business communities.
