Stewart has served on several public company boards including Otis Worldwide, Kontoor Brands, and Clean Harbors. His varied background across supply chain, operations, IT and more helped prepare him to make valuable contributions in the boardroom. To get on boards, Shelley leveraged his network, served on nonprofit boards to gain governance experience, and was helped by the timing of companies looking to add diversity. He doesn’t feel being black pigeonholed him as just a “diversity candidate” given his broad skillset.
On boards, Stewart focuses on listening, asking strategic questions to understand management’s thinking, and building relationships with other directors. He is his authentic self in the boardroom. Shelley believes diversity, both racial and gender, provides important diverse perspectives that benefit boards. Without pressure though, he’s not confident all companies will diversify boards on their own. Mechanisms like state mandates, institutional investor advocacy, and term limits could help.
To increase Black representation on boards, Shelley feels current Black Directors need to sponsor and put forward new candidates, organizations need to keep preparing aspirants, and candidates must proactively network and make themselves visible. He’s optimistic about the pipeline of talented future Black leaders if
access is opened up.
Overall, Shelley remains committed to pushing for board diversity and pulling others up with him as he sees it as a critical issue to keep fighting for and speaking out about. Getting more stories like his documented and shared can help inspire and pave the way for the next generation.
