Karim Perrineau talks about diversity and inclusion at BNY MELLON

 

Meet Karim

I was born in Hanover, Germany, but grew up predominantly in the U.K. From a young age in Germany, I vividly remember that I looked very different from everyone else in my class. Being one of the only Black families in that part of Germany would become of the driving forces behind moving. One side of my family is Caribbean and had been established in the U.K. since the early 1960s, so in the 90s my family decided to join them. Although there were more people who looked like me here, I still had to navigate being ‘othered’ because I didn't sound like everybody else or have some of the same experiences. In hindsight, those were probably the earliest memories of learning how to adapt to my surroundings something I later learnt to be called code switching.

Initially, I wanted to pursue a career in medicine by first studying biomedical science. But I had a passion for the performing arts, which led me to pursue dance as a professional. I had some incredible opportunities to perform which included the X Factor, the MOBO Awards, the BRIT Awards and the London 2012 Olympics. I often took on these engagements whilst attempting to balance studying and then later whilst working in creative industries to build on other skills.

In 2013 I decided to return to full-time education, deviated away from medicine and completed my undergrad in international politics and master's in international studies and diplomacy at SOAS University. I had started becoming a lot more interested in how our lived experiences were tied into the political sphere and embraced an opportunity to shadow a member of Congress, giving me more insight into the U.S. criminal justice system. I continued having conversations around the Black experience, particularly from a UK perspective and realised how structural discrimination is connected across race, class, gender, ability and other visible/invisible social identities. I wanted to continue finding ways to engage in these often-difficult conversations, which eventually led to me forming my own consulting company on diversity, equity and inclusion.

 

I am now BNY Mellon’s senior diversity, equity and inclusion analyst for EMEA. I’m involved in a variety of strategic projects including leading our region with the UK race action plan, which seeks to develop and retain our ethnically diverse talent in addition to working with our Employee/Business Resource Groups to continue developing our inclusive culture at the company. It is so important that we engage with every single employee in the company so that they are more informed of the conversations around diversity, equity and inclusion. We want to ensure people understand the ways in which we want to hold each other accountable.

We know marginalized groups face a level of discrimination in various sectors. In the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, suddenly there was a real conversation on racial inequity. People who are not Black were now looking into differential treatment based on race in the justice system, housing and healthcare. Since then, a lot of companies have been saying they are on the side of racial justice.

 

And now, there is a real push to act and ask, "How do we create goals? How do we create targets to make sure we are honouring our commitments?”

Re-education is crucial to effecting change. Listening to those who are marginalized is crucial. This is why education is so important. While there’s an uptick in those who are genuinely concerned about how to move racial equity forward, how do we sustain that? How do we make sure that it's not just a moment? At BNY Mellon, that is embodied in our values and behaviours.

Strength in diversity is front and centre for me as I believe if you have diversity within your team, you are going to be so much more impactful because you will have a variety of perspectives. Courage to lead is also important since change doesn't happen when we are passive. Change happens when we feel emboldened to point out what is holding us back.

We should never rest on our laurels. There is always something to work on. There's always room for innovation. There's always room for the next step.

 

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