Leadership
Leveraging Diversity, One Space at a Time: Linda Forte
BY WON KIM / © 2006 DiversityInc
Every morning, Linda
Forte pulls into her personal parking space at
Comerica Bank headquarters in Detroit, just a
few assignments away
from the CEO. This
external display of proximity aptly illustrates the
significance of her role as
senior vice president of Linda Forte
business affairs for
Company: Comerica
Comerica. No. of Employees: 10,687
As the lone woman of Annual Revenue: $694 million
color on the management 2006 Top 50 Rank: 12
council and a direct
report to the CEO, Forte does feel a
weighty responsibility to make sure
that “diversity is one of our key
business drivers and core values.”
However, she is quick to point out
that her colleagues
have been more than
supportive and contin-
ually invested in build-
ing an atmosphere of
diversity. As she puts
it, “We are all rowing
the boat together. I
may be closer in the
front, but there are
others at the oars.”
Her journey has
been a long one with
Comerica, beginning
in 1974 as a recent
graduate from
Bowling Green State University.
While working at Comerica, she
received her MBA in finance from
the University of Michigan.
Although she never imagined being
in the position she is today three
decades ago, Forte’s ability to excel,
one position at a time, parallels her
future goals for Comerica. “As a
leader, vision is a non-negotiable. A
leader has to have a vision—about
where it is you’re going and where
you need to go,” Forte says.
Having cut her teeth on the
banking side of the company for
years, Forte believes she has a unique
understanding of what makes
Comerica tick. “I understand what
drives Comerica and what motivates
us and how we react and how we
make decisions. We see diversity in
the marketplace, so we have to pay
attention to it. It makes dollar
sense,” Forte says, who most recently
has been charged with running the
Comerica’s philanthropic arm.
Bringing Diversity to the Gaming Industry: Punam Mathur
BY YOJI COLE / © 2006 DiversityInc
As senior vice president of corporate diversity and community
affairs at MGM MIRAGE, Punam
Mathur was an integral part of the
hotel and resort conglomerate
establishing itself as the first company within its industry to launch
a diversity initiative in 2000.
Now, Mathur finds herself in the
midst of synergizing MGM
MIRAGE’s diversity programs with
the Mandalay Resort Group after
their $8.1-billion merger in April
2005. MGM acquired 11 properties
in Nevada, increased its number of
employees from 45,000 to 70,000,
and changed the top leadership at
all the newly acquired properties.
“Clear was the need to put our
diversity words into full practice,”
says Mathur. “We knew the faster
we could come
up with a shared
set of values, the
more quickly we
could realize the
return shareholders expect.”
Mathur was
concerned that
during the initial
stages of the
merger, the fear
of losing a job
and of dealing
with new management would
hurt productivity.
Punam Mathur
Company: MGM MIRAGE
No. of Employees: 40,000
2005 Sales: $6.4 billion
2006 Top 50 Rank: 40
So Mathur’s office implemented
diversity championship training—a
three-day offsite experience where
attendees examine their background
and how they think about and
relate to people who are different from them. Also, they
examine what defines a high-performing team, what trust
means between coworkers, the
importance of integrity in
leadership, and what should
be their property’s specific
business goals.
Mathur says such training
is the most important aspect
of MGM MIRAGE’s effort to
create employees who under-
stand the competitive edge
that comes with working the
business case for diversity.
“When you give people a shot
and remind them what they can
do, it’s amazing what they’ll accomplish,” says Mathur. DI
