Kenneth Frazier on racial equity
From International Executive of the Year 2022: Kenneth C. Frazier · · Executives' Club of Chicago
“70 companies have signed up for something called 110 yes I was just going right and 110 is a coalition of companies that are committed to hiring 1 million African-Americans who lack 4year degrees over the next 10 years into family sustaining wages yeah coming back to our historical an aant if you looked at the 2020 sentences census rather over 75% of African-Americans don't have a 4-year college degree 10 years after they leave high school so when companies reflexively say you have a minimum requirement of a four-year degree irrespective of whether it's really a skills-based job versus what should legitimately be a credentials based job they don't necessarily intend to prevent people from being hired but you've cut off access to the middle class so what 110 is about is creating different Pathways for these people to have family sustaining wages.”
On , Kenneth Frazier, Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Merck & Co., spoke about racial equity during International Executive of the Year 2022: Kenneth C. Frazier on Executives' Club of Chicago.
About Kenneth Frazier
Kenneth Frazier, former chairman and CEO of Merck, has spoken extensively about corporate leadership, racial equity, and the importance of taking public stands on social issues. In 2022, he was recognized as International Executive of the Year by the Executives' Club of Chicago. Frazier has described his decision to resign from President Trump's business council after the 2017 Charlottesville comments, stating that he felt an obligation to stand up against what he called "intolerance and extremism." He said his board unanimously supported him speaking to the company's values rather than as an individual. Frazier has also discussed the OneTen initiative, a coalition of companies committed to hiring one million Black Americans without four-year degrees over ten years, describing it as a way to create "family sustaining wages" by making jobs skills-based rather than credentials-based. Frazier has been outspoken about voting rights, noting that he helped organize a full-page ad signed by about 700 business leaders opposing what he described as undue interference with voting. He has said that "it's a mistake for corporations to take democracy for granted" and that companies should insist on "everyone who's an eligible voter having a fair and equitable opportunity to cast their vote." During the COVID-19 pandemic, Frazier emphasized the need for broad, equitable access to vaccines, stating that "unless all of us are safe none of us are safe." He has also criticized what he called "vaccine nationalism" and urged transparency in vaccine development, saying that pauses in clinical trials should reassure the public that safety systems are working.