Jonathan Mayes JD’87 receives Professional Achievement Alumni Award

In 2016, Jonathan Mayes JD’87 stepped up to the podium at a speaking engagement and told a story he had never shared publicly.

“When I was in law school, I was told I couldn’t live in the place that was promised to me for no other reason except that I happened to be Black,” he said then. “Even now as I’m talking about it, it brings up emotions.”

Already a successful executive for Albertsons Companies, that speech changed Mayes’ career trajectory and caused him to think more about the best use of his time professionally. After getting counsel from friends and his wife, Varetta, he spoke to the company’s CEO and head of HR, raising his hand for a role that didn’t exist at the time — chief diversity and inclusion officer.

Mayes had spent the last two-plus decades at Safeway and Albertsons, serving as a vice president since 1999. Before becoming chief of diversity, equity and inclusion, he was senior vice president for government relations, public affairs, philanthropy and sustainability in the nationwide company with more than 300,000 employees. When the company agreed he should lead DEI, they later became an award-winning organization for their work in the area.

Three times, Mayes was named a Top 100 Diversity and Inclusion Executive in the U.S. He helped create the training program shown to nearly all employees and new hires at Albertsons that tells the ‘what, why and how’ of DEI. After he retired in 2022, he launched Jonathan Mayes Consulting to lend his diversity knowledge to other companies as a speaker and consultant.

“I talk about what it feels like to be treated unfairly for no reason aside from your race, ethnicity, gender or other characteristics. That’s the ‘what,’” he says. “The ‘why’ is why bias in all sorts of ways lessens the ability of organizations to be the best they can be, and the benefits of having a diverse organization. The harder part is the ‘how.’ How do you do it? I spend a lot of time helping leaders learn how to be more inclusive.”

Mayes has now spoken to over 50 organizations across the world to advance a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. He received the Professional Achievement Alumni Award from Willamette University earlier this year, which he says was humbling and unexpected.

“It causes me to be grateful and provides additional fuel to continue the work I’m doing,” he explains. He credits his law school experience as the launchpad of his successful career.

Attending Willamette Law was one of the best decisions of my life because of the stellar education I received and the strong relationships I established. Some of my best friends to this day are people I met when I was at Willamette.

- Jonathan Mayes JD’87