Blackstone Challenge: Building a More Inclusive Chicago

By Tony Tolentino, Vice President of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation

Last week, the Blackstone Charitable Foundation and World Business Chicago hosted the inaugural Inclusive Entrepreneurship Summit at Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois. Attended by over 130 people, the summit brought together thought leaders, practitioners, investors, funders and foundations, non-profits, and entrepreneurs seeking to have a robust discussion and to learn from one another as to how we should all work to build a more inclusive ecosystem for all entrepreneurs.

Here are some highlights from the summit…

A Fireside Chat with Don Thompson, CEO and Founder of Cleveland Avenue

Don Thompson sat down with Andrea Zopp, CEO of World Business Chicago, to share his personal story of his journey from Cleveland Avenue on Chicago’s northside to become CEO of McDonalds, and now CEO and Founder of Cleveland Avenue. Here are some important anecdotes from the fireside chat:

• What is Cleveland Avenue and where did the idea come from?

Cleveland Avenue (“CA”), a venture fund and accelerator, works to foster the next generation of remarkable restaurant, food tech, and beverage companies. Don was inspired to start Cleveland Avenue after making an investment in Chipotle while at McDonalds, and seeing the potential of support early stage restaurant companies and other early disruptors in the market.

• Does Cleveland Avenue consciously look for diverse entrepreneurs?

No. CA open doors for those whohave a good idea and have passion regardless of their background. CA doesn’t have any preconceived notions when an entrepreneur pitches our company, and we are intentionally open to new ideas and thoughts.

• At a large organization like McDonalds, how did you foster diversity and inclusion?

McDonald’s ensured that it was part of the culture of the organization. Diversity was encouraged in every aspect of the organization from the makeup of the leadership to the supply chain. It has to be present and intentional in everything the organization does.

Panel Discussion featuring Arne Duncan and Vik Sawhney

Moderated by Alya Adamany Woods, Executive Director of ChicagoNEXT, the second panel featured a discussion on specific strategies organizations can implement to build more inclusive communities. The panel, which included Arne Duncan, Managing Partner at the Emerson Collective and former U.S. Secretary of Education, and Blackstone’s own, Vik Sawhney, Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone’s Private Equity group, provided tangible examples of how private industry, non-profits, government, and higher education institutions can build diversity into the culture of their organizations and their everyday work.

Here are some key examples provided by the panel:

• Diversity should be a strategic priority for an organization’s senior leadership as they can have the most immediate change of culture within an organization

• Establishing networks within an organization such an employee affinity groups is key as they provide support structures for employees of diverse backgrounds.
• Mentorship and coaching should be available to these diverse employees to provide an additional layer of support. While these mentors don’t need to necessarily “look” like their mentees, these mentors should have a good understanding of how best to support that employee.
• Storytelling can be an important tool to highlight more diverse faces and voices throughout an organization.
• Technology and the advent of artificial intelligence may be a useful tool for many organizations when selecting employees or vendors to ensure that everyone is given the same opportunity, and that any unconscious bias does not affect the ultimate decision.

The Blackstone Challenge Cohort

Throughout the summit, we highlighted the eight game-changing non-profit organizations who were selected last year to join the Blackstone Challenge cohort. Blackstone Charitable Foundation’s funding, which totaled in $1 million in grants, allowed each of these organizations to create new or scale existing programs that support traditionally underserved entrepreneur populations throughout Chicago.

Stay tuned to learn more about each organization. Over the next few weeks, we will be profiling each organization.