Since being appointed our first executive sponsor for race, Ron Walden has lost no time setting up a global RX Global race committee, and taking his equality message to the wider events industry.

As executive sponsor for race, Ron is responsible for driving greater diversity and inclusion in three key areas: our people; our communities, including charitable outreach; and our business, including our exhibitors, attendees, partners and vendors.

Ron is supported by a 6-strong race committee, personally chosen from over 80 global applicants for their enthusiasm and commitment to the cause. Their role is to recommend where to target charitable donations, set targets for minority representation, advise on how to work with recruiting agencies, and analyse how the company approaches mentoring and sponsorship. Ron is also in demand as a spokesperson on diversity and inclusion, not only within RX Global, but also across RELX and the events industry.

In August, Ron was interviewed by the PCMA’s Convene magazine about how RX Global is holding itself accountable for diversity and inclusion. As a result of this, he was asked to deliver a PCMA Webinar on 29th September on the D&I practices that RX is putting in place. This is now available to view on demand.

The first RELX-wide virtual ‘Inclusion & Diversity Conference’ on 13th October 2020 invited Ron to be a panellist on the session on How to create race equality and inclusion in the work place.

Ron is also one of four panellists on an upcoming Virtual Events Institute Summit entitled A courageous conversation about race: How leaders in the events industry are stepping up to make meaningful change. The summit takes place on Thursday 22 October (16.00 hrs BST) and is free to attend.

Reflecting on his outreach programme, Ron says: “Diversity and inclusion is not something that should be done in a vacuum. It’s something that should be shared and promoted. Every company has to recognise that there is a problem and acknowledge that there is an opportunity for diversity and inclusion to be a part of their culture.  At RX Global, we have an opportunity to make a really positive impact on our people, our communities, and our business. Inherent in that is that the results should benefit the industry.”