Our Advisory Board

Mr. Marcus L. SmithIndependent Director & Private Investor

Marcus L. Smith serves as an Independent Director for NYSE listed MSCI and an Independent Fund Trustee for Eaton Vance. Prior to his board work, Marcus worked for 23 years at MFS Investment Management, where he managed the MFS Institutional International Fund (MIEIX) for 17 years. During his tenure, the portfolio grew from $121 million to over $22 Billion in assets under management. The portfolio received the Lipper Award in 2005 & 2010 for Best 3-year performance of 359 Large Capitalization international portfolios. In addition to his portfolio management duties, Marcus served on the Equity Management committee for 15 years and was directly responsible for staff in Boston, Mexico City, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto & Singapore. Active in the community, Marcus works with several non-profits including the Posse Foundation, Boston Advisory Board. Marcus earned a Bachelor of Science, Cum Laude, in Computer Science from the University of Mount Union and a Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Mrs. Grace VandecruzeManaging Director

Grace Vandecruze is a CPA and financial advisor to the insurance industry and has over 20 years working on Wall Street and advising on transactions totaling in excess of $5 billion. She is the Founder and Managing Director of Grace Global Capital, LLC. Grace earned an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Accounting from Pace University. She is board member of M Financial Group. She also serves on the Wharton Graduate Executive Board. Grace was selected as one of the “2019 Women to Watch” by Business Insurance; “2018 Directors to Watch” by Directors & Boards magazine; and was awarded “Corporate Woman of the Year” by Pace University. Grace has been featured in two books: “Be Happy at Work, 100 Women Who Love their Jobs and Why” by Joanne Gordon and “Doing it Ourselves: Success Stories of African American Women in Business” by Donna Ballard. Grace is frequently quoted in the financial press, including The American Banker, Insurance Journal, and SNL Financial. She has also been quoted on both the TV and journal editions of AM Best.

Grace’s life changed drastically when a fire destroyed her home while she was pursuing her undergraduate degree. She and her family lived in a homeless shelter in NY for five months, which ignited her passion for financial wellness. Grace has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Annapurna, parts of the Himalayan range in Bhutan and Everest Base Camp. She is also a licensed sailor.

Find Grace’s wonderful new book on Amazon.com

Mrs. Elaine HarrisFounder

Elaine is strategic business executive and integrative thinker with global experience in market research, insight development, market development, and brand management. She is Founder of Golden Rule Technology, a firm that leverages virtual reality and innovation processes to address issues of inclusion, bias and discrimination, Elaine develops solutions to address issues of bias that negatively impact organizations. A new understanding of gender and race fosters new thinking and behaviors that will improve the ability of organizations to fully engage all their talent and better serve their communities. Elaine’s community involvement includes work with Black Alumni/ae of MIT & Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild. Elaine received her B.S. Chemical Engineering from MIT and her MBA in Marketing, Strategic Planning, from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Mr. John ReidStrategy Consultant

John is a business Strategy and Operations Management Consulting Executive with over 20 years of experience in strategy development, global business process redesign, implementation and operational excellence in the pharmaceutical, industrial and consumer products industries. John is a trusted advisor to senior executives on strategic, tactical, and operational management issues in a variety of organizations with a strong focus on implementation. Skilled in advising, building consensus, driving business transformation efforts and providing operational direction to enhance business performance by improving customer value, streamlining cost structures and increasing revenue. He has held various consulting and management positions at Pfizer, PWC, Accenture, McKinsey and Johnson & Johnson. John brings to the Diverst Advisory Board impeccable operating credentials, strategic vision and unparalleled change-management experience. John received his B.S. Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Robert RodriguezPresident

Dr. Rodriguez is President of DRR Advisors, a diversity consulting firm specializing in Latino talent initiatives, employee resource group optimization and diversity strategy formation. Robert has worked with over 150 companies in the past 10 years helping them with their diversity programs. Prior to founding DRR Advisors, Dr. Rodriguez had a rich career that spans academia and industry. He has been the Assistant Dean and Senior Director of Diversity at Kaplan University, a Business School Professor at Capella University and an Adjunct Professor DePaul University. Robert was equally prolific in business, holding HR management leadership positions with firms such as R.R. Donnelly & Sons, BP and 3M. Robert is a highly respected advisor, consultant and thought leader in the Diversity and Inclusion space. Dr. Rodriguez is the creator of the widely-adopted 4Cs for ERG management, a highly-coveted public speaker and much sought-after consultant to some of the world’s most trusted brands.

Diverst is the pioneering Diversity and Inclusion SaaS platform for corporations and government agencies. Diverst offers a platform for Employee Resources Group engagement, inclusion and belonging processed tools, ERG management, Diversity and Inclusion technology and D&I Metrics.

About Diverst

Who does Diverst represent?

Diverst provides under-represented and un-represented employees with a voice, inclusion, belonging, up-skilling opportunities and aspirational career trajectories. Diverst provides organizations with D&I-aligned engagement, mentorship structures, innovation management, causes management, volunteering management, expert content, measurement and predictive data; to help increase employee belonging, grow cultural inclusion and to connect D&I with ROI. Diverst is proud to have some of the F500 most recognized and trusted brands as clients.

The board is comprised of the following members, all of whom are outstanding leaders in their field

The Diverst Advisory Board is comprised of strong and diverse members. The board reinforces Diverst’s own diversity DNA and provides new inclusion and belonging perspectives from important external lenses. The board helps Diverst gain a deeper understanding of the communities we serve, improve and diversifies our engagements and collaborations, suggests new modules based on best practices and shapes the dialogue that we maintain with all our stakeholders.

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