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On February 8, Eastern Bank President and Vice Chair Quincy Miller appeared virtually at the Inclusive Leadership Forum, the fourth in聽a yearlong series聽facilitated by diversity expert Carol Fulp and sponsored by the Carroll School's graduate programs. He talked about the bank鈥檚 much-lauded track record of advancing racial equity鈥攁nd how the social uprising over George Floyd鈥檚 killing revealed it still wasn鈥檛 enough.

鈥淲e weren鈥檛 pushing ourselves hard enough, fast enough, in terms of the work we wanted to do,鈥� Miller admitted. 鈥淚n that moment, we really took a step back and said, 鈥榃hat more do we need to do?鈥欌�澛�

To be fair, Eastern was already doing a good amount. A聽聽last December recounted the moment鈥攚ay back in 1995鈥攚hen executives at Eastern Bank looked around and realized 鈥渢here was a piece missing鈥攚e were all white.鈥� That revelation led to the hiring of Wendell Knox, the bank鈥檚 first Black director, who helped the bank expand its reach into more diverse communities well before others in the industry were doing so.聽

By 2020, Eastern had committed millions in low-interest lending to Black and Latinx-owned businesses and ran branches in neighborhoods unserved by other banks. People of color populate one-third of the bank鈥檚 board鈥攚hich is chaired by a Black woman, Cambridge College President Deborah Jackson鈥攁s well as several of its top leadership positions. And thirty-five percent of the bank鈥檚 new hires are people of color.

But that last statistic is one Miller pointed to as emblematic of what he sees as a further challenge for Eastern鈥檚 diversity efforts. 鈥淭hirty-five percent-plus people of color is a really great statistic and stands out very well,鈥� he said, perhaps until you look at how it breaks down. He ticked off a list of divisions at Eastern鈥攚ealth management, commercial banking, insurance鈥攖hat he says 鈥渓ook nothing like the communities in which we serve.鈥� Representation in the consumer bank division was merely masking that inequity. 鈥淚f one division鈥檚 hiring two percent, and the other division鈥檚 hiring fifty, we still have a problem in the two percent,鈥� Miller said.

That鈥檚 why, last fall, the bank set new diversity hiring goals that apply to individual divisions of the bank鈥攔ather than the organization as a whole鈥攖o ensure better representation in all parts of its operations. (The real kicker: two years in, those goals will be tied to managers鈥� compensation.) They also created more formalized development programs for employees of color and hired an outside advisor to hold them more accountable in their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.聽

鈥淣ow our objective is not only to be a leader here locally,鈥� or within the banking industry alone, explained Miller, 鈥渂ut to really hold ourselves to the highest standards in the country. To say, who are the best corporations, period鈥攊n any industry, any place in the U.S. or in the world鈥攁nd to hold ourselves to that standard, not an industry or geographic standard.鈥澛�

Eastern made one more commitment last summer that is especially personal for Miller. Through its charitable arm, the bank donated $5 million to the聽, founded last summer by 19 Black and brown business executives in Massachusetts鈥攐f which Miller is one. Their goal is to battle what Miller called 鈥減hilanthropic redlining鈥� by channeling much-needed investments into small minority-led companies and nonprofits across the Commonwealth. So far, the fund has raised $30 million鈥攊ncluding聽聽from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.聽

Eastern鈥檚 gift to the fund represented the largest single donation in bank history. Even still, Miller (who is apparently a tough grader) ranks Eastern at a five out of ten in its progress on the path toward equity. 鈥淧art of the beauty around the work of D, E, and I is that the work is never done,鈥� he said, referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Miller鈥檚 talk concluded with a Q&A facilitated by M.B.A. student Dewin Hernandez 鈥�21. View the聽聽of the event on the Carroll School鈥檚 YouTube channel.

鈥斅燣eslie Ganson, Carroll School News