General Session featuring Caroline Casey in partnership with the SHRM Foundation
Seeing the Value in the 1.3 Billion
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: Your company is probably diverse-ish. That is, its definition of diversity doesn’t include disability. But if disability isn’t on your business agenda, then neither is diversity; 90% of companies claim to prioritize diversity, but only 4% actually do. Think you’ve got diversity nailed right? Wait a minute, didn’t you just forget about 1.3 billion people? Meet Caroline Casey. Launched in 2017 at One Young World, Caroline’s campaign The Valuable 500 aims to spark a new age of business inclusion that positions disability on the global business agenda. This longtime rebel is absolutely fine with courting controversy and even happier making news globally for doing so. Her latest act of rebellion: asking 500 companies to put disability inclusion on their board agenda. In this session, you will:
- Learn about the global movement of disability employment and inclusion.
- Hear best practices from other companies around how they are including people with disabilities in their workforce.
- Learn why the "board agenda" is so critical to the disability movement.
Caroline Casey
Caroline Casey is an award-winning social entrepreneur and founder of #valuable - a catalyst for an inclusion revolution that exists to position disability equally on the global business leadership agenda.
Committed to building a global movement on inclusive business for the 1.3 billion people in the world with a disability, over the past two decades she has set up several organisations and initiatives centred on disability business inclusion.
Her latest initiative, The Valuable 500, is an ambitious year-long campaign to get 500 businesses to commit to put disability inclusion on their leadership agendas. Launched at this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Summit, Casey succeeded in bringing disability inclusion onto the main stage at DAVOS for the first time ever with the support of global business leaders.
The Valuable 500 is supported by a host of global leaders including Sir Richard Branson, and Paul Polman, and global brands including Virgin Media and Omnicom.
Casey is also a TED speaker, Ashoka Fellow, Eisenhower Fellow, a past advisor for the Clinton Global Initiative, a One Young World Counsellor and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.