DEI is losing battles in the market and in politics, with corporations pulling back on diversity initiatives among wider budget cuts, and Alabama this week passing a law that bans the use of public funding for DEI in universities and schools.
"I refer to these as the frozen mindset," Neri said during an interview with CNBC's Sharon Epperson at the virtual Equity & Opportunity Forum on Thursday."Kind of the middle of the company. Ultimately, it is not because they don't want to help. It's just they don't know how to do it. And sometimes we as human beings, we have a hard time asking for help."
Neri says recognizing there was an issue within the company forced him to have uncomfortable conversations. He described the initial stages of the DEI efforts his leadership has put in place as"a little bit difficult," specifically citing the Covid period and George Floyd protests, and working with a Black female member of HPE's board."It was a real emotional moment, in the height of the pandemic," he said.
Neri says his attention to the difficulties managers and employees facing in having these initial conversations is informed by his personal story: he comes from a Sicilian family which immigrated to Argentina, joined the company in 1995 as a call center agent, learned English as a third language, and worked in a group covering"21 languages, every race, every ethnicity, every culture."