In this next video in our Leadership Perspectives series, Heidrick & Struggles’ Lyndon Taylor, the leader of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Practice, speaks to Jack Conte, the CEO and co-founder of Patreon, and Tiffany Stevenson, Patreon’s senior vice president and chief people officer. Patreon is an American membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service and was founded in 2013 with diversity and inclusion as core parts of the company’s purpose. Conte shares how he built DE&I into Patreon’s purpose from the beginning, and how that purpose influences his decision making, emphasizing that it’s possible to be direct and clear and also warm and compassionate as a leader. He and Stevenson also offer advice to organizations on how to embed DE&I into their purpose and strategy: Define why DE&I is important to the organization, link it to the talent and business strategy, and continue to measure impact, asking what works and what doesn’t, and adjusting over time.

About the interviewer

Lyndon Taylor (ltaylor@heidrick.com) is the regional managing partner of the CEO & Board pf Directors Practice for the Americas; he is based in Heidrick & Struggles’ Chicago office.