Committee for Economic Development/Distinguished Leadership Awards Monday, November 12th, 2012 Sixty years ago last month,

my dad Dan Edelman started a small public relations firm. His first client, the Toni Twins, sent six sets of identical twin women out on tour to show the quality of home permanents. In the six decades since Dad started the firm, the influence of pioneering women continues, consistently defining us, and shaping our best ideas. One of the most influential of these women was my Mom, Ruth Edelman. Long before it was called networking she used her networking skills to introduce my dad to CEOs who became our clients. Shed bring hundreds of journalists from Chicago to our home for parties. Aside from Mom, many of my fathers top lieutenants were women. The marketing and PR industry has always been heavily represented by womenbut my dad also deeply believed that women often worked harder, were more creative and were more team oriented. In fact, no one at the company understood my Dad better than, Pam Talbot, who joined Edelman as an Account Executiveand climbed the ranks to U.S. CEO. My sister Renee, who started our sister firm ZENO, helped launch our tech practice. For sixty years, strong, creative and hardworking women have been at the core of who we are and what we have achieved. This has not changed. What has changed, however, is that today, its no longer enough. Its no longer enough to understand that women are vital to our business success. We are at a point in time, where we have to recognize that we have to act on that belief. About two years ago, we started looking around the table at Edelman. We looked around the table in New York. In Chicago. In Washington. In LA. In London. In Brussels. In Berlin and Beijing. And while we saw a lot of strong, creative, hardworking women driving accounts and doing great work, we didnt see enough of these women in leadership positions. It became increasingly apparent, that for every one woman at the leadership tablethere were three or four otherswho could have been there, but werent. My wife, in fact is one of them. After 17 years in investment banking a field not necessarily known for workplace flexibility - my wife left her career after our third child. Not because of our children, or the clientsbut because of a boss that couldnt provide a structure that might have enabled her to work and raise three children without being on the road four out of five days a week. But there are many more reasons why there arent enough women at the leadership table. Some leave for better jobs and better work environments; but more often, others settle for less demanding roles or simply opt out of the workforce. There are structural and societal obstacles: lifestyle choices, and individual mind-sets that impede womens advancement. Some men, with the best of intentions, dont even ask mothers to consider assignments that involve travel. Often, women lack the networks that could open doors to advancementnetworks that come more easily to men.

These factors all contribute to a stark reality not just in our industry but throughout the corporate world women are underrepresented in leadership. In our industry, women make up two-thirds of the workforceyet less than half of ALL executive committee roles are held by women. Only four women lead PR agencies with more than $100 million in global revenues. Achieving gender equality in leadership is not a radical transformation. Its nothing particularly innovative. Nor is it hard at all to imagine. But what is increasingly clear is that its not something that we will achieve without making the conscious decision to do so. Because the status quo will not change on its own. Id argue that with the mounting complexity of our livesthe expectation to operate across geographies and time zones, answering to always on technologywhile balancing the demands of dual-income or singleheaded households, children and aging parentsthe deficit is only in danger of growing. So let me be clearthis is not a moral obligation: something to be parked under the CSR umbrella, something to make society better. Ensuring an equal gender balance in leadership is predominantly a business imperativein my business and I would suggest in all of yours. So how, then, do we ensure that the best women ascend to the leadership table? I believe that to truly move the needle, a formalized effort with goals and metrics to measure progress, is needed. It is one thing for a few leaders to take isolated actions to achieve greater gender equality. It is entirely another to put the force of a full organization behind measurable goals. And thats what we started a little more than a year ago, we launched the Global Womens Executive NetworkGWEN for shorta formal effort to build a culture where women want to work and rise to senior leadership roles across the firm. We started with little more than an idea and a few committed individuals. Today, GWEN has 735 members across our global network, representing the best and brightest our firm has to offer. Our program takes a principled approach. In fact, the very same principles, that were recognized by McKinsey last week as essential for business leaders who want to succeed: 1. Treat gender diversity like any other strategic business initiative; 2. Ask forand talk aboutthe data; 3. Establish a culture of sponsorship; Sponsorship is different than mentorship. Mentorship happens when two people are in the same room talking and giving advice, sponsorship happens when someone is not in the room, but youre advocating on behalf of a professional to get them to the next stage. 4. Raise awareness of what a diverse work environment looks like. Our aim is simple By 2016, to have 50 percent of our leadership at Edelman be women. That number is currently at 40 percent (includes level six and above). Its a goal that we still have a ways to go before achievingbut one were making progress toward. At the end of year one, weve seen a 25 percent increase in promotions of women at the senior most levels. Also, we have started to see a culture of sponsorship. At Edelman, this means men, and women alike, becoming advocates for other womenhelping women pursue and take on growth opportunities. This is what Chairman Samuel Palmisano did for Ginni Rometty who became the first female CEO of IBM.

We must be more assertive about helping women identify new roles, and we must work harder to encourage them in taking on roles when they question their qualifications. An exampleGail Becker, Edelmans Chair of Canada, Latin America and the U.S. Western Region turned down the position to lead our LA office seven timesbefore she took it. She was unsure she had what it took to succeed in a PR agency. But she went on to turn the business from a money-losing operation into the largest agency in LA. We then offered her the role of leading Latin America and Canada, and again she doubted. But those of us within Edelman saw that she had the chopsand we were adamant about making her recognize her own career potential and again, she has turned the regions into a success. When Cornelia Kunze, CEO of Edelman Germany, came to us and said she wanted to try something new, after having tripled the business in Germany from $6 million to $18 millionwe met her with a bold challenge. We asked her not just to move to Mumbai, Indiabut to become Vice Chairman of Edelman Asia Pacific, and develop the regions consumer business. Our Global Fellows programwith more than 60 percent women today in their late 20s and early 30sis a way that we are further broadening this approachhelping women take on bold roles and assignments all over the world, succeeding from Jakarta to Shanghai. Beyond sponsorship, weve made strides to create a better environmentone that encourages women to stay and grow with the firm. One exampleand there are many moreis our Global Chief of Staff, Katie Burke. What she, and many women, have told us is that oftentimes when new mothers return to workthey need greater flexibility to do so. Recently, she identified a schedule that allows her to perform her same job duties while being more involved in her infant daughters life. She gets in early and leaves in time to still have dinner with her family. She is effective because of her ability and hard work, not because of how long she spends in the office. By telecommuting two days a week, she and other womenand menare able to redirect commuting time to raising their families. But to affect real change, you need to make real changes to policy. At Edelman, weve changed our Leave of Absence policy to allow for a gradual return to work from maternity leave. And weve improved our Caregiver Leave policy to extend the amount of time an employee can take to care for a new child, aging parent, or sick spouse. Beyond the many employees who GWEN has energized, what is most encouraging to me, is that since we started GWEN, and started talking externally about what were doingpeople, including clients, have started calling. They want to learn from usabout whats working, and whats not. In closing, I see the business imperative of achieving gender parity in leadership. But also, I have a selfish reason as a father to three daughters, I have the advantage of a second perspective as well.

I am inspired every day by three creative, strong-willed, independent-minded daughters. Not so secretly, I hope that one or maybe all of them will choose to work and lead at Edelman. But whether they come to Edelman, or choose to work somewhere elseI hope that the workplace thats waiting for them is one thats changed just a bit for the better. We are on our way.