ROOTS INSPIRE BRINGS MORE DIVERSITY TO CORPORATE WORLD

Sergio Panday worked at ABN AMRO – including here in Zuidas – for eighteen years and, as one of the bank’s few employees of colour, often found himself wondering if he was in the right place. And also: could he ever truly succeed in a setting that only magnified his differences? A deep-seated desire for more diversity and inspiring role models finally led Sergio to establish Roots Inspire in 2020.

Roots Inspire is a leadership development platform that works with ethnic role models to foster talent development in the business world. Their mission: to enlarge prospects for ethnic talent and increase ethnic diversity in corporate leadership positions. “For a long time I lacked confidence purely because of my ethnic background”, recalls Roots Inspire founder, Sergio. “It wasn’t that I experienced actual racism in Zuidas, but more than anything a feeling I had of being different.”

What Sergio lacked was role models he could identify with. It was this void that ultimately led him to the idea for Roots Inspire, which Sergio launched with co-founder Melvin Spalburg in 2020. “Roots Inspire taps into the power of differences and looks at how to harness it professionally”, Sergio sums up. “We teach talented professionals that it’s okay to be different. That your ethnicity can be your superpower, if you embrace it. That’s how we shape authentic leaders who are confident and can utilize their full potential.”

According to Sergio, the corporate world is not a system in which talent prevails. “People of colour can definitely break through to positions of leadership. Our programme’s 75-plus ethnically diverse mentors are living proof of that. However, you have to be exceptional to pull it off, whereas if you fit in the majority, you can be mediocre and still make it just as far.”

More workplace diversity

Roots Inspire helps organizations realize their diversity goals by attracting, retaining and advancing ethnically diverse talent. Among Roots Inspire’s clients are ABN AMRO, De Brauw, Freshfields, Unilever and Rabobank. “We like working with companies that are committed to enlarging their ethnic diversity.” Sergio stresses that “workplace diversity doesn’t happen on its own; you need a long-term strategy to achieve it. Companies also need to understand the payoffs of greater diversity. Having a mix of different perspectives can strengthen teams, keeping everybody sharper and ultimately leading to better decisions.”