The Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) today announced the founding signatories of its newly launched Diversity in Action Initiative. The Initiative serves as a means for GPs and LPs to publicly acknowledge their commitment to take concrete steps to advance diversity, equity and inclusion, both within their organization and the industry more broadly. Diversity in Action signatories undertake four essential DEI actions and at least two additional actions, from an optional set of nine. The Diversity in Action framework includes a broad range of actions spanning talent management, investment management and industry engagement.
“As the private equity industry strives to make even more significant progress on DEI, a limiting factor has been the challenge associated with knowing how your peers are approaching the issue,” said Steve Nelson ILPA’s chief executive officer. “The Diversity in Action Initiative offers, for the first time, a platform not only to showcase the incredible work underway but also to surface ideas and resources that may inspire others to do more on DEI; the value of that information is really hard to overestimate.”
Diversity in Action is a living initiative, and ILPA will continue to welcome new signatories on a rolling basis. Starting in March of next year, ILPA will publish quarterly updates listing all Diversity in Action signatories and including a thematic analysis of the range of specific actions that signatories have in place, including emerging best practices.
“Our aim is to celebrate and elevate the specific measures taken by a wide range of organizations to make the private equity industry more diverse and inclusive,” added Jennifer Choi, Managing Director of Industry Affairs at ILPA. “This network of committed organizations will grow over time, as more LPs and GPs put in place specific processes and programs around DEI. We’ll look to the Initiative’s signatories to provide a window into the areas where the industry is strong on DEI as well as those where improvement is still needed. We look forward to demonstrating a robust pattern of improvement across the industry while also identifying ways we can collectively move forward.”
