Crossroads - Summer 2014

profile
the tech industry should be regarded
not just as an issue of morality, as it is
sometimes simplified in the media, but
also as a quintessential prerequisite
without which businesses would fail
to be relevant and innovative. “I think
organizations should represent their
clients. If you know that 50 percent of
your clients are female, that on average
6 percent of people identify as LGBT
(according to Stonewall statistics), or
that your clients and users are from
different ethnic or cultural backgrounds,
then it is essential to fully represent the
diversity of your clients. If you don’t, then
how can you possibly relate to them?”
He further added this holds especially
true in the case of IT: “Technology is
all about innovation, and in order to
innovate, you have to have diversity. This
has been one of IBM’s central tenets for
many decades.” To illustrate his point,
he used an example from the software
industry: “If you get only white, straight,
middle-aged boring men developing
software, then it’s less likely that it’s
going to be the kind of software that
the world actually needs.”
Still, knowing that this tendency
toward affirmative action often
draws criticism in cases of perceived
positive discrimination, I wanted to
know whether Havelock is aware that
the position of enforcing diversity in
the workplace might wind up being
misunderstood. Having previously
mentioned during our interview that he
is more than happy to give people a bit
of an extra leg up if it will help someone
be promoted to the executive level, he
acknowledged my question, and felt the
need to clarify. “I’m not sure how it would
generate more inequality, because I’m
not saying we should promote people for
the sake of it, and I’m not saying that we
should promote people not on merit. But
Peter Havelock is one
of about 40 out gay
executive partners
at IBM, where he has
been working in the
company’s global
consulting business for more than

10 years. With more than 430,000 employees as of 2012 (as many as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, and Amazon combined), and a presence in more than 170 countries, IBM is the largest IT company in the world, and it prides itself on having promoted a diverse and inclusive work environment ever since the early days of industrial computing. Indeed, IBM has consistently scored highly in diversity and equal opportunity rankings, having been awarded first and second places in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index over the past years, and nominated among the top 50 organizations for multicultural business opportunities by DiversityBusiness.com in 2013.

In light of the company’s reputation, I wanted to speak to Mr. Havelock to learn how IBM’s corporate culture understands and tackles diversity in the industry, and how his life experience relates to the bigger picture of equal rights and opportunities in the workplace.

Career Timeline

Havelock was born and raised in England.

He graduated from the University of Cambridge in the late 1980s, where he read economics at Selwyn College. In his own words, his time spent at university required constant balancing between economics and the pursuit of other interests (most notably music); the idea of how his career might take shape was not at all clear to him upon graduation.

He first worked as a graduate
accounting trainee for Legal & General
for four years until 1995, when he
decided to go into consulting by taking
a position at Ernst & Young. It was at
there that he discovered his career path;
he stayed with the company for another
eight years. Havelock then joined IBM in
November 2003, and was subsequently
made partner in 2008.

He then started to take on a more proactive role in the company and society at large. Within the company, he became Executive Sponsor for the IBM UK Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community (a position he held for three years) and sat on the global IBM LGBT Diversity Council.

Outside of IBM, he became a trustee of Stone wall, the main gay rights charity fighting for equality in the UK.

When asked what had driven him to get involved with the LGBT community within his company, he emphasized having fallen into the roles naturally and by virtue of necessity. The initial position had been suggested to him more as a moral duty, given that he was otherwise professionally successful within the company. “I did participate in the network group at IBM, but my sexuality had never been anything I felt a need to make a big issue of. But after being promoted to partner, the team started tapping on my shoulder, saying ‘Peter, you’re a model, you now need to step up and take some responsibility for diversity.’” He still cringes at the title of “role model.” However, with time, he has come to realize the importance of being a personal example for others who aspire to senior positions, so that they can be assured their sexuality will not be an obstacle to their success.