Proving diversity is good business

Tag : jacket china
Helen Henderson Special to the Star
The gourmet sandwiches are mounded elegantly, the conversation islow but intense, the dress strictly business. In a classy BloorStreet hotel, some 100 Ontario university students withdisabilities are schmoozing with 50 corporate connections tohigh-power careers in finance, technology and human resources.
This is networking at its best.
As the group drifts into the adjacent room for a short paneldiscussion, only one person is missing. Rich Donovan, the33-year-old Newmarket whiz kid who has taken Manhattan by storm, isstuck in traffic on his way from the airport. He arrives just intime to say a few words and, suddenly, if you ever had any doubts,you know how different this evening is going to be.
Donovan clearly has cerebral palsy. It is also abundantly clearthat he couldn't be more comfortable in his own body. Striped shirtopen casually at the neck, tailored jacket lying easily across hisshoulders, the former Merrill Lynch trader and founder ofnot-for-profit employment specialist Lime Connect is out to donothing less than rebrand disability.
The current brand, rooted in medical terms and do-gooderexpressions of pity, "is so negative, it's radioactive,"he tells his audience. "Nobody wants to come near it."The result is "a mainstream view that people with disabilitiesare unable to produce and must be cared for."
Lime's approach? "Simple," Donovan says. "Kill thecurrent brand with quality." Get the message out that"people with disabilities can, and will, deliver."
For companies, he has a few added thoughts. Give disability itsrightful place when it comes to diversity recruiting. Remember thatthe world market represented by disabled people is 1.2 billion,roughly the size of China. Hiring employees who represent majormarkets is good business, particularly when employers are expectedto face a shortage of skilled workers by 2020.
"Rich puts everything together," says Tej Singh Hazra,manager of corporate diversity and inclusion at IBM Canada."He does a great job."
IBM is just one of the heavy hitters at Lime's upscale recruitmentevening. PepsiCo, BMO Financial, Scotiabank and TD Bank Financialhave all sent teams to talk to the students, who are studyingeverything from finance and human resources to journalism.
Missing, ironically, is Merrill Lynch. It is the day after BlackMonday nearly two weeks ago, and the famous bull logo, bleeding redink from losses on high-risk mortgage investments, has been sold toBank of America.
Speaking quietly down the hall from the networking event, Donovansays his thoughts are with the colleagues he worked with in NewYork as vice-president and portfolio manager specializing in globalmacro strategies.
It was Merrill Lynch that hired him straight out of ColumbiaUniversity Business School, where he says he learned the importanceof networking. But Donovan was a people person long before arrivingin New York.
He was president of the student council at Sacred Heart CatholicHigh School in Newmarket, the first of what he sees as threeturning points in his life.
He credits his parents for starting him on the right path byletting him take risks and never overprotecting him. "You haveto let kids fail," he says. Especially kids with disabilities.Like any other kids, they often "could do with a goodbutt-kicking."
Failure marked the second turning point in Donovan's life. Agraduate of York University's Schulich School of Business, he ranunsuccessfully as a Conservative in York West in the 1997 federalelection.
"Best thing I ever did," he says. "Knocking on doorseight hours a day, seven days a week and getting chased away"