Forging Common Bonds

ELFA’s Equity Committee is here to help you invest in diversity, equity and inclusion—and reap multiple rewards.

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have been areas of increasing focus for companies, especially in recent years—and for good reason.

A growing body of research illustrates how companies with cultures that prioritize DEI enjoy distinct business benefits. For example, research from management consulting firm McKinsey found that companies with 30% or more women executives were more likely to outperform others, while those in the top quartile for ethnic and cultural diversity outperformed fourth-quartile peers by 36 percent.¹ 

Other research has shown that employees, prospective employees and customers are paying attention to companies’ DEI efforts. Customers increasingly prefer to do business with companies that reflect their core values. Deloitte’s Global 2022 Gen Z and Millennial Survey found that more than half of employees in these demographics are not satisfied with their current employers’ progress in creating a diverse and inclusive workplace.² And research by Indeed and Glassdoor found that 72 percent of workers between the ages of 18 and 34 would consider refusing to work for or leaving a company if they thought their manager did not support DEI initiatives.³ Strong DEI initiatives and programs have been linked with more effective recruitment and retention, as well as increased employee satisfaction and decision-making capabilities.  

“Based upon my study and observations, a fairly direct connection exists in corporate America between encouraging a dedicated, supportive focus on diversity, equity and inclusion and realizing greater shareholder equity, higher customer satisfaction and improved employee engagement,” says Scott Thacker, CEO of Ivory Consulting and inaugural Chair of the ELFA Equity Committee.

The business case for DEI 

The findings sited above and others, which can be found in ELFA Equity’s DEI Toolkit, build a solid business case for DEI, delivering a number of benefits that can give companies an edge in the marketplace. Helping ELFA member companies realize such advantages was part of the reason the association formed its Equity Committee.  



The purpose of the Equity Committee is to lead an evolutionary change within the association to create an environment of equity, diversity and inclusion in not only everything it does, but throughout the global equipment finance industry. Thacker says the committee focuses on DEI in the broadest sense of the term, ranging from gender expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, military status and race/ethnicity to people with cognitive and physical differing abilities. In short: Finding ways for every person to thrive—to realize opportunity and acceptance within the industry and the association’s member companies.  

Since its founding in 2019, the 20-member ELFA Equity Committee has had significant impact that led to the hiring of Eboni Preston-Laurent, the association’s first Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, in January. Preston-Laurent, who is also the ELFA staff liaison to the Equity Committee, says as a first step companies should assess where they are with their DEI initiatives before creating a plan to advance them.  

“It’s important that companies don’t go in and try to ‘boil the ocean,’ and try to do everything at once,” Preston-Laurent says. “Because oftentimes it’s overwhelming. That overwhelm may result in abandoned plans or ‘analysis paralysis.’  Change can be challenging, and it’s okay to start with a few moves first.”  

If your company wants to deepen its own DEI initiatives and reap the business rewards, here are some places to start.

Review the resources 

The first stop for those interested in learning more about DEI in general and how to advance initiatives within their own organizations should be ELFA’s DEI webpage at https://www.elfaonline.org/DEI. There, members will find links to items such as:  

DEI toolkit: Recently updated and refreshed, this is a DEI primer. The three-page resource is user-friendly and includes such basics as key points making the business case for DEI, key definitions for discussions, and links to resources driving DEI in the workplace. It also includes a calendar of relevant holidays. “This new version gives more intentional strategies and tangible suggestions for how you can be more effective in the DEI space,” Preston-Laurent says. 

ELFA Equity LinkedIn page:Get to know other ELFA members working on DEI and share ideas and content.  

Special DEI content: Enjoy podcasts and articles produced by the Equity Committee to help you learn more about various facets of creating more inclusive and fair workplaces. The page also includes links to relevant research, information about special heritage months, and other information and resources. 

Check out a webinar (or few) 

The response to the Equity Committee’s webinars has been so positive that the team is looking at doing more on a regular basis, Preston-Laurent says. The latest, “Equipment Finance & DEI: What It Means for You and Recruitment,” included conversations with several members who shared their own experiences driving DEI in recruitment within their companies, as well as recruiting approaches they’ve taken, challenges they’ve faced, and the overall positive impact on recruiting in their businesses. Watch a recording at www.elfaonline.org/webinars.

Attend the Equity Forum 

The second annual ELFA Equity Forum will take place on Sept. 13 and 14 in New Orleans, following the combined ELFA Operations & Technology Conference and Exhibition and the ELFA Lease and Finance Accountants Conference. The Equity Forum will feature a day and a half of programming primarily addressing the business case supporting multiple corporate-wide DEI initiatives, for example, in promotions and recruiting, as well as activities sponsored by Employee Resource Groups, all of which should result in a more successful business. Participants will also learn how to hire for diversity, now and in the future, which may require different approaches.  Overarching these two themes will be discussions on how to create awareness through telling one’s own story—creating empathy—as the most effective way to create a culture of inclusiveness.  



Kinna Pattani, Associate Director at Alfa in Dallas, attended the Equity Forum last year and was impressed. “People were openly sharing their experiences—and sometimes rather raw emotions,” she recalls. And while Alfa prioritizes DEI, she says she still learned ways the organization could continue advancing its initiatives. “There were so many key takeaways just for us as an organization, or just for me to take back to our organization,” she says. 

Thacker often hears from members who want to find and hire more diverse employees but have trouble connecting with them. This year, recruitment is a key focus area for the Equity Forum, addressing solutions to find diverse candidates. “During the Equity Forum, we want to have a session or two on how to recruit diverse people of all kinds and how to create a corporate culture where they will feel comfortable when they arrive—and comfortable enough to want to bring in their friends who look and act like them,” he says. 



Delroy Stauffer, Director of Sales and Business Development for Philadelphia-based Odessa and incoming Equity Committee Chair, says that everyone who attends the Forum—from senior leaders to entry-level staffers—will learn something valuable about themselves and their organizations. “The Equity Forum, open and available to anyone and everyone to attend, will give each and every person the opportunity to hear stories and share their own, and that will make a powerful impact on their life,” he says.  

In addition to helping companies find DEI solutions, the Equity Forum will help attendees learn about themselves, too. “We talk about unconscious bias. People hear the term but don’t really know exactly what it means in practical terms,” says Eric A. McGriff, Chief Credit Risk Officer at Irvine, California-based Wintrust Specialty Finance and a 2022 Equity Forum attendee. McGriff says peoples’ stories from the Equity Forum “opened my eyes to things I hadn’t seen before.” 

Build a network of like-minded peers 

One of the benefits of attending the Equity Forum and interacting with people working on DEI is the opportunity to build a network of like-minded peers who can offer insight and answers. Pattani says that while she had been working in Europe—where many DEI initiatives are mandated—attending the forum and meeting new contacts has been enormously helpful in her DEI work in her own firm. “Although I’m sort of newer to the U.S. market, I felt as though I created a network of people whom I’ve contacted since then. It’s been really nice to openly have discussions about DEI initiatives or just knowing that there was such a focus within the industry on the topic,” she says.  



Thacker encourages ELFA members to volunteer with the Equity Committee and its multifaceted projects. Committee members serve three-year terms, and the group includes members who identify as diverse in addition to those who are allies. In the future, Thacker’s vision is to expand the number of webinars to create even more awareness of the positive power of DEI work and to develop relationships with other DEI-focused organizations.  

“We are a business-directed more than a social or political committee so we are interested in helping ELFA member companies find ways to be more successful and to find and hire the best talent no matter who that may be,” Thacker says. “Our success with DEI is all about people becoming more empathetic, opening their eyes to what their colleagues experience, finding the common bonds that bind us, creating an understanding of the power of DEI on corporate success and creating as much inclusivity as possible.”  

End Notes: 
1. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters  

2. https://www.deloitte.com/content/dam/assets-shared/legacy/docs/about/2022/deloitte-2022-genz-millennial-survey.pdf

3. https://www.glassdoor.com/research/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Indeed-Glassdoors-2023-Hiring-Workplace-Trends-Report-Glassdoor-Blog.pdf