EARLY CAREER
“In every job that I had early on in my career, I was typically either the youngest or the only person of color. This was back in the late 90s and the early 2000s,” says Brandi Riggins, Global Head of DE&I at Guidewire Software. “You didn’t hear the word diversity a lot in terms of work culture.”
Seeing this issue at the heart of all her early roles, Riggins made it her business to lean into diversity, starting with her role as VP, Employee Relations Manager at Bank of America.
“At Bank of America, I was a part of our community volunteerism group, and that’s allowed me to get face time with a lot of the senior leaders. They were able to see the passion that I had for the topics that I was advocating at that time,” Riggins says. Soon, she was promoted to the role of VP, Diversity & Inclusion, Global Technology, and Operations.
From there, Riggins moved to Time Warner Cable as Senior Inclusion Leader, Diversity, and Inclusion. She chose that role in the hopes that it would beef up her resume for a future Chief Diversity Officer role. Time Warner Cable, however, was soon bought by Charter Communications, a company that was in the infancy stages of its Diversity journey.
“My job changed quickly from amplifying and enhancing our Diversity Efforts to educating the company on the business value of ERGs and doing roadshows on our Diversity Business case and strategy” she recalls. “I truly enjoyed the challenge – it gave me the experience of working with my leader to stand up a D&I Function, including launching an external D&I Council.” A year into her biweekly commute from Charlotte to the new headquarters in Connecticut, she noticed an open role at Wells Fargo similar to her earlier role at Bank of America: the position of VP, Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Enterprise Finance, and Wells Fargo Technology.
“I was excited about the opportunity to take all those things that I have in my HR background and combine them in one role,” she says. At Wells Fargo, she dug into the root cause of systemic D&I issues, namely why diversity and inclusion policies hadn’t taken root yet at the company.
“From there, I welcomed a baby boy during the height of COVID,” she says. “At that very moment, everything changed. I knew I wanted to run my own shop and I wouldn’t compromise my work/life balance to do it.” I wanted to prove to myself what I already knew, that I was more than capable and qualified.” With her first child in college and a newborn at home, Riggins found her way to Guidewire Software in January of 2021, finally in the role of Global Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
AN ESTABLISHED VISION
“What made it easy for me is that there was a vision established of where they wanted to go and my job would be to help them get there,” she says.
“There is a willingness, there’s an openness, there is a desire to help and make sure that people are successful in what they do,” she says of Guidewire’s culture. “I’ve been on calls with people who I’ve never met before, who will reach out to me to say, ‘I know you’re new, but let me help you with the gap.’’’
To say Riggins hit the ground running at Guidewire is an understatement. Her vision was needed immediately: “In my first day on the job, I presented to the CEO and his direct reports on microaggressions,” she says.
“One of the first projects that I did when I walked in the door was consulting on our diversity dashboards because we didn’t have them. Leadership was eager to know what success should look like, and measures and ROI would play an important in that, “she says. In addition to that, having an inclusive culture would be just as important. She wanted to make sure Guidewire employees knew Diversity was more than what you saw on the outside “When many people hear Diversity, they associate the word with race because that’s something we feel like we can see. But what you can’t see is that I’m a proud military spouse. I’m also neurodiverse and so is my son0- both of those things are diverse segments.”
“Diversity is more than what we look like on the outside. It’s also what we look like on the inside. And that is why my role has a huge cultural component,” she says. “I always make sure I’m putting a global view on everything that I’m saying, so I make it relatable to every person that works at our company. My goal is that every employee feels engaged and like they’re part of Guidewire.”
DE&I IN ACTION
From day one in her current role, Riggins has been defining for the company what a DE&I program can really mean in action.
“I want to make sure that diversity is embedded in everything that we do. Every quarter, I meet with senior leaders of the company to talk about how we’re moving and progressing against all of the metrics,” she says.
“My job is an amazing job because it doesn’t feel like one. I tell everyone that works at Guidewire that while I may have a few direct reports, I actually have 2700 employees who serve as extended ambassadors for DE&I because it’s actually in everything that we do,” she says. “I liken myself to a conductor. I listen to different departments. I listen to strings. I listen to horns. And my job is to make sure that we’re moving together in a harmonious way and that we are on key.”
Considering that Guidewire is a global company, diversity lessons can be more subtle than they might be at a company doing business in just one part of the world. Riggins must be familiar with distinctions between groups in places like Poland and Madrid, which have different kinds of representations to consider than North America.
This is all an impressively substantial slate of work for someone only with the company for a short time. And when you add in the complications that the shift to remote work that COVID forced, one can begin to understand how important the skill level and thoughtfulness Riggins brings with her are to coherent results in DE&I.
Riggins works from the East Coast, with most US Guidewire employees working from the West Coast, and her partners are based all over the globe. This makes her especially sensitive to time zone challenges, as well as other cultural issues that may accompany a Zoom-based workspace.
Her own experiences as a still-new Guidewire employee are feeding into her knowledge of the workplace experience in general: “I’m a proud member of the Guidewire Covid Cohort, I have the experience of viewing the workplace from a virtual lens. However, I still wanted to know what the office looked like to help me feel closer and more connected. I wanted to see pictures. I wanted to see things that they had done. I wanted to feel the experience of actually being there.”
Riggins also brings a sensitive touch to the virtual meetings that have become a part of the new normal in 2021.
“Turning on your camera is not a requirement for me. And I understand that because there are people who have diverse abilities who prefer not to use it,” she says. “Zoom fatigue is real.”
RETURNING TO THE OFFICE
When the return to office work happens, Riggins and her cohorts will depend on Guidewire’s employee resource groups for helping acclimate a workforce that has been remote for a year. The company is focused on their “Reboarding” efforts, which provide a second chance to make a first impression, which we refer to as intentional team design.
“We’re using the culture of ambassadors that we have throughout the country to determine what people are thinking,” she says. “We trust them to help us shape our experience because they know what they would like to see when they go back. We’re over-communicating to make sure that people feel comfortable.”
“Here we like to say we’re “ALL IN,” which means everybody’s all in for what we’re doing. We want it to be something people understand and model. Everyone is welcome at Guidewire, we have a culture where differences are respected and appreciated.” Riggins says, underlining exactly the qualities that make her an ideal DE&I executive.
