The recent post spotlighting an interview with 4As Foundation SVP Tangie Murray prompted a question: Where’s 4As EVP Talent Engagement and Inclusion Simon Fenwick?
Fenwick arrived via Facebook in late 2018 and proceeded to excrete contrived thought leader babbling, clichéd heat shields and sundry performative stunts.
Maybe MultiCultClassics missed the press release, but Fenwick fled the 4As in May 2022, recording less than 3.5 years of service for the trade organization.
So, what happened? Or, so what?
Fenwick’s departure represents a troubling trend with DE&I delegates in Adland. That is, the people propped to extinguish exclusivity appear unable to handle the heat. The mouthpieces espousing the imperative for recruitment and retention are easily recruited out of the field and rarely retained.
Do Chief Diversity Officers and DE&I Executives in other fields hold their positions longer than those in Adland? Or is there something about the advertising industry—say, the systemic racism—that makes the job uninteresting, untenable and/or unbearable?
To play off Sanford Moore’s classic perspective on Chief Diversity Officers, the window dressing hits low glass ceilings. The parasites are being expelled from the system. The pimps quickly abandon the whorehouses.
What’s next? Internships, mentorships, scholarships and embryo recruitment programs for CDOs?
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