Pat Milligan

As a 40-plus-year leader committed to helping people learn, grow, and thrive in their careers, I am passionate about all things related to fostering the healthy and productive workplaces of the future, including diversity, equity, and inclusion. Today, I’m advancing that work as a Senior Director at Brightworks Consulting and as a Board member for the Foundation for Female Equity and Inclusion. In this exciting new capacity, my colleague Christine Gannon and I are working with motivated organizations and communities to help them understand that these challenges are significant but solvable. When we build a new partnership, we share a roadmap to drive progress with people and entities that share our commitment to accelerating equity. I have devoted much of my life to tackling this kind of systems change at both the individual and organization level. This work is challenging and rewarding, and I feel more energized and motivated than ever to partner with leaders, organizations, policymakers, and others who are committed to driving progress. I have worked with corporations, non-profits, and industry leaders as they pursued more equal and inclusive representation at all levels, including through my 15 years spent at Mercer, where I was the architect of WhenWomenThrive and launched and led the Women@Mercer initiative. I am proud to work with several mission-driven, impact-oriented organizations that are moving the needle on equity and inclusion, starting with Brightworks and the Foundation. I am also a strategic advisor to EDGE Certification, the preeminent global certification standard for gender equality, and LandIt, the market leader in personalized career pathing focused on the engagement of women and diverse groups in the workplace. I likewise continue to partner with other leaders in the gender equality space, such as the WILD Network, the Reykjavík Global Forum, WomenLiftHealth, Fresh Start, Rotary, and the Huntsman Cancer Center, among others. The commitment to building diverse workforces, inclusive cultures, and equitable societies has never been more important. The COVID pandemic has shown us that this focus is critical. It is not just the right thing to do – it is a business and societal imperative. Making that case to organizations and empowering them to work harder, smarter, and faster is important work, and I love to do it.