Calling us out on the whiteness of the room, the respondent warned: “If these awards are going to remain relevant, something has to be done about this.”

 

Here’s the hard truth: Only 35 per cent of Atlantic Business Magazine’s 2023 Top 50 CEOs are women. Less than 10 per cent are visible minorities. None of them are black. There was a similar lack of diversity among the 500 attendees at our awards gala on May 11. Whose fault was that?

According to one post-event survey respondent, the blame is on us. They aren’t wrong—but they aren’t entirely right either.
Calling us out on the whiteness of the room, the respondent warned: “If these awards are going to remain relevant, something has to be done about this. It is to the point where it is becoming embarrassing to be a winner, knowing how diverse other awards shows we have attended recently have been.”

Now, I know that I invited the feedback. I also know that if you can’t handle the answer, you shouldn’t ask the question. But I’ll be honest: after 25 years of building the Top 50 brand, with six core months of dedicated effort each year to coordinate and deliver the magazine and its associated gala, I felt the criticism was overly harsh.

It reminded me of certain comments that were floating around the Twitterverse

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