Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at INSEAD

Our Commitment

Diversity is a foundational value of INSEAD. It is a value we hold dear, a cornerstone of the INSEAD education

As the Business School for the World, INSEAD commits to cultivating a community that pursues equity, exemplifies inclusion, and cherishes diversity in all its dimensions, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and religion.

Our global presence enables INSEAD to develop nuanced perspectives on the complex, multiple, and often inter-related equity, diversity, and inclusion challenges in global business and societies worldwide. In keeping with our mission to develop responsible leaders who transform business and society, we will employ these unique perspectives to develop Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) solutions both within our institution and the broader community by:

facilitating the exchange of knowledge and best practices among our faculty and staff, our students, and the numerous global leaders in our alumni ranks; while
sustaining our innovation, creativity, and rigour unlocked by the mindset of intellectual curiosity; and
fostering initiatives to understand, partner with, and positively impact the local communities across our networks.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Resources

At INSEAD, we strive to build on a longstanding commitment to diversity to foster a culture and practices that are truly inclusive.

Sharon Brooks
Executive Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

INSEAD Centres

Gender Initiative

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Wealth Inequality

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Standing Against Systemic Racism

Recent events have shown that we are living through a global activist moment in which supporters of social justice and racial equality are coming together to demand – and help build – a better world. At what we hope will be a historic turning point, we declare our unqualified opposition to systemic racism wherever it resides. Spurred by these events and this optimism, we have initiated a serious, sustained reflection on how INSEAD can continue to be a force for good in the fight against discrimination in all its forms, both within our institution and in the broader communities that we impact.

Our Work

Together, we have started to prepare possible interventions to improve our institution, representation, education and thought leadership. Below is the list of initial actions announced by Dean Ilian Mihov on 16 July 2020.These action steps will take effect immediately or will be implemented in the coming academic year.

Institution
Representation & Inclusion
Education
Thought Leadership

Institution

We have appointed an Executive Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) who will be responsible for setting up, heading and managing the first office of DEI at INSEAD. Serving as a member of the Dean’s Office, the Executive Director will be responsible for developing a DEI strategic roadmap, and collaborating across departments and stakeholder groups. As such, she will drive efforts related to DEI awareness, action and support for the community.
We are aligning with leading schools and providing diversity, equity and inclusion training to staff, managers and faculty.
We are working in collaboration with our faculty and Centres and Initiatives to reflect inclusive principles in our academic life, as well as in our marketing and communication.
We have launched the INSEAD Africa Initiative to develop partnerships with African universities and organisations and work closely with our alumni in Africa to increase the diversity of our student applications and offer executive programmes. We have appointed an Executive Director and also a Fellow of the Africa Initiative

Representation & Inclusion

Students. We have doubled our scholarship budget for students from under-represented backgrounds, including from Africa.
Staff. We will develop a plan to align with best practices to increase the diversity of our staff in accordance with legal requirements of countries where our campuses are located.
Faculty. We continue to increase efforts to recruit a dynamic and diverse faculty. This includes focusing on our faculty pipeline.

Education

We have launched a fund dedicated to developing cases that portray minority protagonists, have broad national diversity and address discrimination and injustice.
We are incorporating material and conversations on systemic racism and equity, diversity and inclusion in our curricula, from launch week of our programmes to specialised electives. We launched a new elective on diversity, equity and inclusion in 2021.
We have conducted a series of research-based webinars to increase the lifelong learning of all members of our community on equity, diversity and inclusion.

Thought Leadership

We have allocated €50,000 seed funding from our Research and Development Committee to projects on diversity, equity and inclusion with the view to increase this earmarked envelope every year.
We have created an INSEAD Knowledge page on diversity, equity and inclusion to display and discuss all of INSEAD's research on the topic.
We will lead the conversation by holding a regular academic conference on diversity, equity and inclusion. The 2020-21 academic year had two: (i) the “Women at Work” conference looking inter alia at gender intersections with race in March 2021 and (ii) the inaugural "Business in Africa" conference in partnership with Brookings.

Equal4Europe

As part of our commitment to champion gender equality, INSEAD is proud to form part of EQUAL4EUROPE (E4E), a European Union Initiative. INSEAD is working with seven E4E partner institutions to develop and implement gender equality plans for business and management schools, as well as the social sciences throughout Europe.

More about Equal4Europe

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce

We thank the members of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce (EDIT) for their tremendous contributions in developing important resources, as well as engaging community members in crucial conversations about fostering inclusive practices and environments at INSEAD.

View full list of EDIT Members Early Achievements of our Taskforce

Our Leadership

Diversity has been one of INSEAD’s core values since our founding in Europe post-World War II, when we clearly saw the benefits of committing to unity to shape our collective destiny. We are expanding our commitment to incorporate equity and inclusion focusing on gender and race, fully aligned with our mission to develop responsible leaders who transform business and society

Ilian Mihov, INSEAD Dean

At INSEAD we are committed to a learning environment that develops leaders who ensure equity in their organisations.

Lucy Quist, MBA 05J, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley, member of INSEAD Board of Directors

At INSEAD we believe the diversity of the classroom and learning from each other can transform students, who will transform business, who can ultimately transform the world. I want to see leaders who can bring the world together and bring solutions the world sorely needs. The only way this is possible is if we remove barriers, take everyone’s ideas seriously, and create safe environments where everyone feels they belong.

Katy Montgomery, Associate Dean, Degree Programmes

Having the privilege of being a part of the leadership development journey of thousands of executives from around the world, we at INSEAD hold diversity, equity, and inclusion as core values of what is needed to make the world better, and strive to share and spread these values with all members of our INSEAD community and beyond.

Sameer Hasija, Dean of Executive Education

We need to bring the alumni voice to the discussion of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) at INSEAD as advocates for both current and future alumni. We are proud of what we have accomplished, but we are not satisfied.

Nida Januskis, Associate Dean of Advancement

INSEAD strongly supports efforts toward increasing diversity, equity and inclusion with leading-edge knowledge creation.

Ziv Carmon, Dean of Research

Thought Leadership

INSEAD Knowledge

Business Schools Can Help ‘Break the Bias’ for Women

by Zoe Kinias, INSEAD
March 8, 2022

INSEAD Knowledge

How Nasdaq’s Board Diversity Rule Creates Potential for Real Change

by Felicia A. Henderson (EMCCC 17), Leadership and EDI Consultant; Zoe Kinias, INSEAD Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour; and Claudia Zeisberger, INSEAD Senior Affiliate Professor of Entrepreneurship & Family Enterprise
December 22, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

Why Allyship Is Key to Gender Balance

by Ilian Mihov, INSEAD Dean, and Zoe Kinias, INSEAD Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour
November 23, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

Recognising and Confronting Racism in Europe

by Felicia A. Henderson (EMCCC 17), Founder, Henderson Advising
September 27, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

DEI When We Need It the Most

by Vinika D. Rao, Executive Director, INSEAD Gender Initiative; Chiara Trombini, INSEAD Postdoctoral Fellow; and Zoe Kinias, INSEAD Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour
April 27, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

Strategy and Leadership Lessons From the ‘Notorious RBG’

by Chengyi Lin, INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Strategy, Felicia A. Henderson, (INSEAD EMCCC ’17), Founder, Henderson Advising, and Zoe Kinias, INSEAD Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour
March 8, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

How Disempowerment Drives Demand for Risky Skin-Lightening Products

by CZoe Kinias, INSEAD Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, and Jasjit Singh, INSEAD Professor of Strategy
February 9, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

How LGBTQ+ Employees Can Embrace Authenticity

by Antoine Tirard (INSEAD MBA ‘97D), Founder, NexTalent, and Claire Harbour (INSEAD MBA ‘92J), Founder, Culture Pearl
February 3, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

Healing the Social Wounds of Injustice

by Michael Jarrett, INSEAD Professor of Management Practice in Organisational Behaviour
January 18, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

The Music Industry’s Best-Kept Secret? A Gender Creativity Gap

by Noah Askin, INSEAD Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour
October 6, 2020

INSEAD Knowledge

Business Schools Can Help ‘Break the Bias’ for Women

by Zoe Kinias, INSEAD
March 8, 2022

INSEAD Knowledge

How Nasdaq’s Board Diversity Rule Creates Potential for Real Change

INSEAD Knowledge

Why Allyship Is Key to Gender Balance

by Ilian Mihov, INSEAD Dean, and Zoe Kinias, INSEAD Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour
November 23, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

Recognising and Confronting Racism in Europe

by Felicia A. Henderson (EMCCC 17), Founder, Henderson Advising
September 27, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

DEI When We Need It the Most

by Vinika D. Rao, Executive Director, INSEAD Gender Initiative; Chiara Trombini, INSEAD Postdoctoral Fellow; and Zoe Kinias, INSEAD Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour
April 27, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

Strategy and Leadership Lessons From the ‘Notorious RBG’

INSEAD Knowledge

How Disempowerment Drives Demand for Risky Skin-Lightening Products

by CZoe Kinias, INSEAD Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, and Jasjit Singh, INSEAD Professor of Strategy
February 9, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

How LGBTQ+ Employees Can Embrace Authenticity

by Antoine Tirard (INSEAD MBA ‘97D), Founder, NexTalent, and Claire Harbour (INSEAD MBA ‘92J), Founder, Culture Pearl
February 3, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

Healing the Social Wounds of Injustice

by Michael Jarrett, INSEAD Professor of Management Practice in Organisational Behaviour
January 18, 2021

INSEAD Knowledge

The Music Industry’s Best-Kept Secret? A Gender Creativity Gap

by Noah Askin, INSEAD Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour
October 6, 2020

Partners

	PWN Global, proud partner of INSEAD, is a movement of people working towards gender balanced leadership through professional development and international, cross-industry, online and in-person networking/p>
	Forté is changing the balance of power in the workplace. Their mission is to launch women into fulfilling, significant careers through access to business education, professional development, and a community of successful women.
	As part of this initiative, INSEAD is working with five partner institutions to develop and implement gender equality plans for business and management schools and the social sciences throughout Europe. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no GA872499.
	INSEAD is a member of the HeforShe Alliance, a trailblazing community of Champions aiming to spearhead transformative change through advocacy and allyship to accelerate progress in gender equality and strive for the achievement of a more equitable and sustainable society that is good for all people and the planet.