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Lori George

(She/Her)
Lori George

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategist | Public Affairs & Communications Expert | Social Impact & Sustainability Specialist | Former Global Chief DEI Officer, Coca-Cola

Lori George is a Fortune 500 Director and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD) and Shake Shack (NYSE: SHAK). She is on the Nominating Governance, Health, Safety and Environment and Compensation and Leadership Development Committees.

Lori also serves on the Boards of the NAACP Foundation and Arete Executive Women of Influence. She is a Founding Member of The Coca-Cola Company’s (TCCC) Equity Accountability Councils, and a member of the National Association of Corporate Director’s (NACD) Center for Inclusive Governance Advisory Council, NACD 2023 Blue Ribbon Commission, Catalyst Board Directors Advisory Committee, Howard University’s School of Communications Board of Visitors, Executive Leadership Council, OnBoard, International Women’s Forum, Extraordinary Women on Boards, Black Women on Boards and Leadership Atlanta.

She is the former Global Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Officer for The Coca-Cola Company. In that role, she led the company’s DEI Center of Excellence, all directed to enable a more engaged global workforce, mirror the markets served, and support a more inclusive culture to best position the employees of the company to drive growth. During her tenure, Coca-Cola set bold public goals, including being 50% led by women and mirroring its markets by 2030, built a more inclusive culture, launched the first-ever global pay equity analysis, and tied executive pay to progress on DEI. She was with the company for 20 years, having spent most of them in a variety of roles with increasing responsibility within Public Affairs and Communications.

Lori has over 35 years of public affairs, global issues communications, shareowner affairs, community and stakeholder relations, social impact and diversity, equity and inclusion experience in developing and implementing breakthrough strategic initiatives that meet organizational goals, target audience needs and produce results. Prior to joining Coca-Cola, she led her own public relations consultancy, LG Communications; was a vice president at Porter Novelli, a leading public relations firm where she co-founded their Multicultural Communications and Alliance Building practices; and a senior public affairs specialist for the District of Columbia Government’s Office of Human Rights and Minority Business.

She formerly served on the Boards of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. (Chair), Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, United Way of Greater Atlanta, Atlanta Mission, Leadership Atlanta, ColorComm and The Coca-Cola Foundation. She also served on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Partnering for Racial Justice in Business Advisory Council, WEF’s Community of Chief DEI Officers, The Conference Board DEI Innovators Council and as Co-Chair of American University’s Inaugural Women’s Network and Co-Chair of the TCCC’s Political Action Committee.

Lori is a featured speaker globally and has received numerous national awards, including the Alumni Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement from Howard University, PUSH for Excellence, Dr. MLK Jr. Corporate Award, Atlanta Business Chronicle Top Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Atlanta Business League’s Top 100 Black Women of Influence, Academy of Women Achievers’ YWCA of Greater Atlanta, Inaugural Bravo! Award for Diversity and Inclusion from the Hispanic Public Relations Association, Chairman’s Circle Leadership Award from the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Public Relations Society of America
(PRSA) Order of the Phoenix Award and is a Georgia PRSA Hall of Fame Inductee.

She received her Bachelor of Arts in public relations at Howard University and her Master of Arts in public communications at American University. In 2019, she completed a 13-month Executive Leadership Experience Program at Harvard Business School; and in 2021, she completed Stanford University Graduate School of Business Directors’ Consortium. Lori is an ordained minister.

Chisom Udeze photo

Chisom Udeze (She/Her)

Economist | Founder of Diversify, Diversify Consult and HerSpace

Chisom is an Economist, a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Strategist, and a 3 times founder of impact driven companies. She has over 14 years of experience working with organizations like the European Commission, The United Nations, ExxonMobil and The Economist Group. Chisom is analytical and a data enthusiast. She is passionate about interrogating the cross-sectoral relationship between society’s inhabitants, resources, production, technology, distribution and output. She efficiently and effectively unlocks complex systems, interprets data, forecasts socio-economic trends and conducts research.

Having lived and worked in 7 countries across 3 continents, she is highly adaptable to different circumstances and people, and thrives in uncertain environments.

As the founder of Diversify and Diversify Consult, Chisom and her team work with companies, institutions, governments and civil society to develop sustainable DEIB strategies and embed measurable diversity and inclusion initiatives in the workplace and society. In addition, in 2022, Diversify launched the Diversify Nordics Summit, the largest conference in the Nordics that gathers cross-sectoral stakeholders to amplify DEIB in the Nordics and beyond.

In 2020, she founded HerSpace, a diverse and inclusive co-creation community for all genders, with particular focus on women and non-binary people. In 2022, HerSpace launched HerTech, Women in Tech incubator, for women-led companies, with a focus on the inclusion of diverse founders.

Chisom is a thought-leader in DEIB and a passionate advocate for mental health and wellness. She writes often on DEIB and justice related topics, some of her work is published on Forbes. 

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