Janet Stovall
- Former Manager of Executive Communications, UPS
- Award-Winning Fortune 500 Speechwriter
- Diversity & Inclusion Pragmatist
Janet Stovall Speaker Biography
Janet Stovall has flourished in the highly competitive corporate FORTUNE 500 world; she is one of the few executive speechwriters of color. A self-described cultural conversationalist, Stovall is best known for her TED talk challenging business to get serious about inclusion—her video has been viewed more than 1.6-million times.
Stovall, manager of executive communications for UPS, serves as the primary speechwriter for the company’s CEO and senior leaders. On stage, her business approach tackles corporate racism head-on with a straightforward formula, creating an inclusive workplace where people feel safe and are expected to be their authentic selves. Diversity, she says, is a numbers game. Inclusion is about impact.
She talks to audiences about how the power of single-mindedness in business can dismantle racism, and challenges audiences to imagine a place where the lessons we learn in a diverse workplace transform the things we do, think and say outside of work.
Stovall shares her empowering story: being on the Davidson College campus in the mid-80s as part of a small group of black students where she experienced racism and exclusion firsthand. Instead of retreating, however, she chose to initiate difficult conversations, devising a program that is now viewed as the catalyst for creating a changed, more diverse and inclusive Davidson campus community.
Before joining UPS, Stovall founded and served as principal of The Point Communications, a marketing communications and PR consultancy. She developed, implemented, and managed marketing strategies and executive positioning projects for leading U.S. companies for more than 20 years, advising, scripting, ghostwriting articles, books and presentations for some of the country’s most influential thought leaders.
Stovall holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Davidson College in Davidson, NC, a Master of Professional Studies in Integrated Marketing Communications from Georgetown University and serves as a member of Davidson’s Commission on Race and Slavery.
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Speech Topics
It’s Time for Business to Get Serious about Inclusion
Janet Stovall is someone who feels today’s business community really must talk about race in order to end the lingering problems of racism. In this presentation, Stovall discusses harnessing the power of diversity to drive organizational change. Diversity, she says, is a numbers game. Inclusion is about impact and her strategies for developing an inclusive workplace transcend typical talking points. She shares her thoughts on how the power of single-mindedness in business could dismantle racism, and challenges audiences to imagine a place where lessons learned in a diverse workplace transform the things we do, think and say outside of work.
From Buzzword to Business Asset: Harnessing the Power of Diversity to Drive Organizational Change
(A Workshop for Organizational Resource Groups)
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)—a staple of company D&I strategies—are recasting themselves as BRGs (Business Resource Groups) to reflect their potential to drive bottom line results. To realize that potential, ERGs and BRGs must leverage their diversity to solve real business problems. Using the In-Demand© Problem Analysis Tool, attendees will identify real-world challenges and/or opportunities within their organizations that allow them to translate their unique perspective into strategic advantage for their organizations.
Other featured speech topics include:
Please See Color: Why We Really Must Talk about Race
The Journey of Why: Roots of Racism (And Why Business Needs to Know)
The Institutional Iconoclast: How Corporate Communicators Drive Change
Pragmatic Diversity: A Three-Part Strategy for Building an Inclusive Workplace
Transcending the Trope: Finding Your True D&I Mission
Beyond the Business Case for Diversity to the Strategic Case for Inclusion
