Paradigm for Parity® CEO Spotlight Series: Mark Costa, Eastman
The Paradigm for Parity® coalition CEO Spotlight Series showcases the CEOs who are transforming the culture within their companies to advance women of all races, backgrounds and ethnicities.
This week we are pleased to feature Mark Costa, CEO of Eastman, who shared, “Having a level playing field for women and people of color at Eastman means we get the best possible outcomes at work. Inviting, including, and applying diverse perspectives makes our product solutions better and just makes us a better company all around.”
1. What motivated your company to join the Paradigm for Parity® coalition?
As Eastman develops new products to meet today’s most pressing needs, we know we must inspire innovative ideas by making every team member feel valued and empowered to do their best work. Promoting inclusion and diversity (I&D) is critical to our long-term success, and helps us solve complex problems, seize new opportunities and positively impact all our stakeholders. It provides a competitive edge. Being a member of the Paradigm for Parity® coalition gives us the ability to draw on all of the available resources (research, best practices, other members, etc.) to help accelerate our I&D goals, and we see a lot of value in that.
2. What role can/should CEOs play in leveling the playing field for marginalized groups, including women and people of color, in the workforce?
At Eastman I consider myself the chief inclusion and diversity officer. It starts with me and my executive leadership team. We have to set the example and keep I&D at the forefront of all we do to move our company and our team members forward. At the leadership level we’re all responsible for achieving the goals we’ve set for the hiring, retention and promotion of marginalized and minority groups, including women and people of color as well as other underrepresented team members in our workforce, such as our LBGTQ and veteran communities. If we’re not achieving those goals, it’s our responsibility to dig in to find out why and fix it.
3. What do you consider to be the benefits of leveling the playing field for women in the workforce for your company and society as a whole?
Eastman is in business to improve the quality of life in a material way for our customers and that extends to every team member. Having a level playing field for women and people of color at Eastman means we get the best possible outcomes at work. Inviting, including, and applying diverse perspectives makes our product solutions better and just makes us a better company all around.
4. How is your company advocating for, lifting up and supporting women of color in your workplace? What has made the biggest difference in advancing all women in your company?
Our goal is to bring underrepresented groups to above industry levels. We’re doing that by strengthening relationships and increasing our presence at educational and professional organizations to broaden sourcing of talent from underrepresented groups and further diversify candidate slates, including increasing our investments in Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We’re mitigating unconscious bias in selection processes by broadening diversity of interview teams, restructuring the interview process, and training hiring managers to recognize and eliminate bias. And we’re implementing new benefits that foster inclusion, including paid parental leave, expanded domestic partner benefits, new fertility and surrogacy benefits, and a new pre-Medicare health care plan.
In terms of gender diversity, specifically, Eastman has publicly committed to achieve gender parity across all levels of the company by 2030. To support this goal, we joined the Paradigm for Parity® coalition of business leaders and leverage this relationship to accelerate progress in removing barriers to women’s advancement. This commitment has helped us increase the number of women in senior leadership positions in recent years, putting us on par with industry peers.
5. When you look at the Paradigm for Parity® coalition 5-Point Action Plan, is there one step that you think is most critical to ensuring that women of color have the same opportunities for advancement as their colleagues?
While all five steps are important, I believe that step 3, measuring targets at every level and communicating progress and results regularly, is the most critical to ensuring that women of color have the same opportunities for advancement as their colleagues. We can be doing all the others, but unless we’re measuring and course-correcting as we go, we won’t be able to achieve our goals.
Mark Costa is Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Eastman, a global material innovation company that leverages its world-class technology platforms, deep customer engagement, and differentiated application development to deliver innovative, sustainable solutions to customers in diverse end markets such as transportation, building and construction, and consumables.
About Paradigm for Parity®
The Paradigm for Parity® movement is a coalition of business leaders dedicated to addressing the corporate leadership gender gap. The coalition is made up of CEOs, senior executives, founders, board members, and business academics who are committed to achieving a new norm in the corporate world: one in which women and men have equal power, status, and opportunity. Our ultimate goal is to achieve full gender parity by 2030, with a near-term goal of women holding at least 30% of senior roles.
