Global Inclusion & Diversity - Bristol Myers Squibb - Our stories

Our Culture

Global inclusion
& diversity



Pam


 

At BMS, we lead with our value of inclusion to integrate inclusive practices into processes and drive systemic change and equitable access, opportunities and outcomes for all. Our patients, communities, colleagues and customers around the world deserve our very best.”

 
Pamela Fisher
Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer


BMS is guided by a single mission: discovering, developing and delivering innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. To fully execute and realize this mission, we have relied on the strength of our rich history and long-standing commitment to inclusion and diversity to ensure that we can drive meaningful health outcomes for our patients and communities around the world.
 
Our Global Inclusion & Diversity (GI&D) strategy and priorities lead with our company value of inclusion. We are focused on driving system-wide change by providing equitable access, opportunities, and outcomes for our patients and communities, our colleagues, and our business and industry.

 

 

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Patients and communities


Drive innovation & growth
to address the unmet needs of our increasingly diverse patients and communities around the world.

We relentlessly invest in and drive innovation and growth to better understand and serve the unmet and evolving needs of our patients and communities around the world. We know that we must care comprehensively for our patients and communities by addressing the social determinants of health as well as health disparities. We continue to drive this effort through our health equity commitments in clinical trial diversity, global public health and supplier diversity.

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Colleagues

Lead with our value of inclusion
to advance a workplace where our colleagues feel they belong, and their unique perspectives are valued and rewarded, while building a global workforce that reflects the diverse cultures, backgrounds and experiences of our patients and communities globally.

We rely on our inclusive culture to engage and harness the collective power of our colleagues around the world. We continue to strengthen inclusive leadership competencies across levels, businesses and markets to attract, develop and retain a globally diverse workforce and drive greater transparency and stronger accountability for inclusion by people leaders.

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Business and industry

Reimagine and transform
business and industry practices, processes and policies to achieve equitable advancement and outcomes for all.

We continue to challenge ourselves and our industry to lead boldly to transform our business practices and drive sustainable, systemic change.


Our GI&D strategy includes five-year inclusion & diversity goals and health equity commitments launched in 2020:

  • increasing diversity in clinical trials globally to improve the efficacy and safety of our medicines
  • leveraging and strengthening the diversity of our workforce to better understand the unique needs and preferences of our patients and communities
  • collaborating across global communities and beyond to improve education and access, ensuring our partners can provide culturally competent and appropriate care 
  • driving economic empowerment in the communities we serve by investing in diverse businesses to enhance the innovation and agility within our supply chain
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GI&D: Patients and communities


Accelerating health equity efforts

As one of the world’s largest healthcare companies, we have a responsibility to address health inequities and care comprehensively for our patients and communities globally. We are collaborating with partners across the healthcare landscape with our shared commitment to drive differentiated education, engagement and outcomes across our global communities. We recognize the important role we can play in leading systemic change.

As part of our five-year health equity commitment, BMS and the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation (BMSF), a separate charitable entity, committed $300 million — $150 million each — to accelerate our health equity initiatives globally by 2025. This includes accelerating disease awareness and education programs for at-risk patients, improving access to care, and advocating for policies that promote health equity. To date, BMS has distributed nearly $100 million in funding, reaching more than 10 million people, and the BMSF has awarded $45 million supporting 32 grants to advance health equity in cancer, cardiovascular disease and immunology.


Health equity

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Investing in supplier diversity to enhance economic empowerment

BMS has a long history of partnering with a purpose to address a critically important social determinant of health — economic empowerment. Our investment in supporting minority- and women-owned businesses in our supply chain drives innovation and diversification while strengthening the economic development and stability of the communities we serve globally. 


In 2020, BMS set a goal to invest $1 billion with Black/African American and diverse-owned businesses, a target we surpassed three years early. We know there is more opportunity to sustain our level of investment.

Spending with diverse suppliers

 

 

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Surpassed goal of spending $1 billion with Black/African American and diverse-owned businesses three years early


In addition to our financial investments with diverse suppliers, BMS has expanded our award-winning Power2Impact (P2I) program to impact people’s health, wellbeing and quality of life through community engagement. As an example, we have partnered with Goodr to address a variety of social determinants of community health. Goodr is a woman- and minority-owned nonprofit committed to feeding more and wasting less by providing solutions to food insecurity across the United States. In collaboration with Goodr, BMS has funded and supported employee-led volunteer efforts at events in four different cities, feeding nearly 2,000 families. 

Employee giving to increase our impact 

BMS supports the communities where our patients and colleagues live and work through our Employee Giving program, administered by the BMS Foundation. This year-round initiative helps employees achieve their charitable giving goals by doubling their financial contributions to eligible charitable organizations.


2-to-1

 

match through the
BMS Foundation

 



Since 2020, the Foundation has provided a double match for U.S. and Puerto Rico employee donations to designated organizations that fight disparities and discrimination.


1,852 employee donations
since program launch

$1.15M donated


GI&D: Colleagues


We lead with our value of inclusion to foster a globally diverse workforce and leadership team that thrives in an environment where our colleagues feel they belong, bold ideas are encouraged, and people are recognized and valued for their unique contributions.  

Workforce representation aspirational goals 

Attracting and supporting a globally diverse workforce requires intentionality, transparency and accountability. At BMS, we leverage inclusive practices across our end-to-end talent systems — including talent acquisition, development and retention — to harness the collective power of our colleagues and to drive the human connection and innovation we bring to our work every day.  

In 2020, we launched three-year workforce representation goals to expand the diversity of our executive, management and professional teams. We are proud of the significant progress we made:

 

Doubled our Black/African American executive (VP+) representation in the U.S., exceeding our goal of 6% by 2022

We increased the representation of global female executives (VP+) to nearly 49%, a 10% increase in just two years, but slightly below our target goal of 50% by 2022

We increased the number of our Hispanic/Latino executives (VP+) by 65%, from 3.7% to 6.1%, slightly below our target goal of 7.4%
 

2025 goals

We extended these aspirational goals in 2023 to include executive directors and above (ED+) to strengthen our internal pipeline of talent and the next generation of leadership at BMS.



 








Global executive* gender parity:


*Vice president or higher






Global women’s representation by management level:

 


 

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U.S. ethnicity by management level

 

Notes: Data is based on employee self-identification. This does not include data for employees that chose not to disclose or are on a type of leave. U.S. race/ethnicity data does not include employees in Puerto Rico.



Attracting diverse talent around the world 

Our talent acquisition team understands that inclusion and diversity is a recipe for business success. We invest in candidate outreach and creative sourcing strategies to find exceptional candidates. We leverage diverse candidate slates and interview panels; develop inclusive job descriptions that identify the experiences, skills and qualifications required for roles; and communications that create an inclusive candidate journey. We also ensure a robust and equitable interview process and offer competitive compensation, allowing us to hire the most qualified candidates. 

Amanda Poole, senior vice president of People Strategy, Solution and Services, said her teams build talent attraction campaigns to show potential candidates “all the great opportunities we have to offer, not just at our homebase but around the world. Putting inclusion and diversity at the heart of our recruitment strategy is really what sets us apart,” Poole said.
 

partnering

Working with internal and external groups to drive our people strategy 

Recruiting is enabled by leveraging strategic partnerships and relationships that provide outreach to a broad and diverse range of talented candidates. For example, our partnership with the Executive Leadership Council (ELC) and ELC Young Scholars program build strong relationships with Black executive talent and Black early career talent. 

We also strategically partner with organizations including the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) and Ascend to build relationships with executive talent across a diverse spectrum. 

To diversify the talent pipeline for our industry, BMS provides scholarships and mentorship to Black students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), including a collaboration with five leading HBCUs to support Tomorrow’s Innovators — a program that creates custom biopharma educational programming to prepare undergraduate students for a career in the industry. 

Our Tomorrow’s Innovators partner institutions are Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Howard University, Morgan State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. 

In 2022, BMS hosted 30 engagements that connected us with 4,900 people from the HBCU community. That led to 10 internships and two full-time hires pipelined by the end of the year. 
 

Ann Powell
 

Our people are our greatest strength. It is essential that we build a global workforce that reflects the diverse cultures, backgrounds and experiences of our patients and communities around the world. We focus on creating a workplace where everyone feels they belong, their unique perspectives are valued and they can fully contribute to BMS’ vision of transforming patients’ lives through science.”


  Ann M. Powell, Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer

 

Our leaders around the world

 

Ranjita Gurijala, Associate Director, HCP Marketing, U.S. Hematology

“I’m happy to see more women reach top leadership positions at BMS. From my perspective that means I see a path for myself to one day have that opportunity, not only as a woman but also someone who’s a first-generation American.”

Ranjita Gurijala, Associate Director,
HCP Marketing, U.S. Hematology

Learn more >


 

Morten Jensen, Associate Brand Lead, Denmark

“I learned how much impact BMS has on patients’ lives, which was very inspiring. I felt that being part of that every day would make for some meaningful and worthwhile work. So, when the opportunity came to join BMS full time doing more than an academic exercise – doing work that actually helped people – that was very motivating.”

Morten Jensen, Associate Brand Lead, Denmark

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Vani Kodandaram

“There were not too many women in IT when I joined the field. And we’re still working hard to increase the percentage of women in tech. But BMS has encouraged all of us to pursue passion or stretch projects that keep the patient at the heart of what we do. It’s in our culture and it’s what you’ll find in Hyderabad.”

Vani Kodandaram, Head of IT Culture and Strategy, Hyderabad, India

Learn more >

Angeleta

“In a previous job, I felt like I couldn’t be a Black African American LGBTQ woman in technology, not at all. BMS was a game changer for me in many ways. Now, I work in an environment that embraces the importance of its culture of inclusion. That makes me comfortable in feeling proud to be me and appreciate the fact that I can bring every element about me to work.”

Angeleta Washington, Manager, Digital Capability Management

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Johnathan Sulikowski, Material Handler, Car T Warehouse Operations

“It’s great to have a job that has some more meaning behind it, like in the Air Force, where I was serving my country and seeing the bigger picture. My work in CAR T makes me proud to be a part of BMS.”

Johnathan Sulikowski, Material Handler, Car T Warehouse Operations

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soll

“I was brought into a conversation to make some large business decisions. The leader asked me point blank, ‘Lauren, what do you think?’ She was asking me that question based on my diverse experience and the fact that I likely would have a different perspective than everybody else who maybe had more of a traditional path. It was eye-opening because I felt so valued, and I really felt like I contributed.”

Lauren Soll, Associate Director HCP Marketing, U.S. Hematology

Learn more >


GI&D: Business and industry


At BMS, we recognize that diversity in clinical trials is both a social and a scientific imperative. As a patient-centered pharmaceutical company, we’re committed to doing our part to help ensure everyone can achieve optimal health outcomes — including through access to promising experimental therapies. We also know that certain disease areas are more prevalent in different demographic groups and people may respond differently to the same drug. We are leading from the front to diversify our clinical trials to ensure our patient population is representative of everyone, not just those with access to care.

“Our ultimate objective is to recruit a patient population that reflects the real-world population and aligns with the epidemiology of the diseases we are studying,” said Samit Hirawat, chief medical officer, Drug Development. “That’s not just the right thing to do, it’s essential to ensuring better outcomes for the patients we serve.”

In 2022, we made important progress toward that goal.

U.S. clinical trials increase diversity
 
Increased patient
racial diversity to
22%

Increased patient ethnic diversity to

16%

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New approaches to advance equity in clinical trials

 

One of the many barriers to recruiting diverse clinical trial cohorts is the location of trial research sites — typically at major academic medical centers, whose patient populations tend to include fewer members of typical underrepresented groups than those found in many other healthcare settings. To solve for this, BMS is working to ensure that research sites are accessible to underrepresented groups, based on U.S. census and epidemiological data.

The Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Award Program was created by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation to increase diversity in clinical trials and transform the clinical research landscape.

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early-stage investigator physicians in training

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medical students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds gaining an immersive experience in community-based clinical research

Read more about the Winn Award Program



Through our company’s commitment to Global Inclusion & Diversity, we are taking meaningful steps to drive equitable access, opportunities and outcomes for all. There are tremendous opportunities for growth and progress ahead of us. To continue to achieve success against our GI&D strategy, we are working every day to reach more patients and overcome systemic barriers to a healthier society. We seek to promote equity by creating a culture of inclusion so that our patients, our workforce and our suppliers achieve their full potential. We are confident that this will lead to better science, better medicines and better communities throughout the world.
 

Recent awards and recognition

  • World’s Most Admired Companies: Fortune  
  • 100 Best Corporate Citizens: 3BL Media 
  • Most Innovative Companies: Fast Company 
  • Modern Board 25, Most innovative boards of directors: Fortune 
  • Best for Vets Employers, Ranked No. 1: Military Times 
  • 2022 Top Companies for Executive Women: Seramount 
  • Menopause Friendly (Bristol Myers Squibb UK&I): The Menopause Friendly Accreditation 
  • America’s Top Corporations: Resiliency Edition: Women’s Business Enterprise National Council 
  • 2022 ERG/BRG of the Year: DisabilityIN 
  • 2023 Best Places to Work: BioSpace 
  • 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators in 2022: Fast Company 
  • Score of 100 on Corporate Equality Index for #LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices: Human Rights Campaign Foundation 

 

Global Inclusion & Diversity


Leading with our value of inclusion:
Driving equitable advancement and outcomes for all
 

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foundation
Health equity has been a buzzword the past few years. But it’s been woven into the fabric of the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation’s mission for more than two decades, bringing help and hope to people around the world who are often seemingly forgotten.

 

Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation’s touches of compassion impact communities around the world

Growing our work in sub-Saharan Africa

Two Foundation programs building diversity in clinical trials

Programs training a new generation of pharmacists