• Several firms have rolled back DEI efforts amid pressure from conservative groups and the White House.
• Some CEOs have voiced their support or defended the diversity programs at their companies.
• Deutsche Bank's CEO is the latest bank executive to defend DEI initiatives.

The list of CEOs who are publicly backing their companies' DEI policies is growing.

Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing is the latest, joining JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs' David Solomon in publicly defending DEI programs amid wider external criticism of diversity initiatives from conservative activists and President Donald Trump's new administration.

One of Trump's first executive orders placed federal DEI staffers on administrative leave as work began to dismantle their departments.

The pullback on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the private sector began before Trump took office. A slew of companies — including Meta, Walmart, and McDonald's — either reduced or ended their own DEI initiatives. Some had been targeted by conservative activist groups.

However, amid the tensions around DEI, some executives are taking a public stance in support of their firms' policies.

Deutsche Bank

In a Frankfurt press conference on Thursday, Sewing said his company was "firmly behind" its DEI programs, calling them "integral" to its strategy.

"Quite honestly, I know what diversity has brought us on the management board at the top reporting level," Sewing said. "That's why we are strong supporters of these programs."

If the legality of DEI programs should ever change, the bank might reevaluate its stance, he added.

"But in terms of our basic attitude, in terms of our mindset, both issues — whether it's diversity policy, inclusion, or sustainability — are an integral part of Deutsche Bank's strategy," he said.

JPMorgan

Dimon was defiant in the face of apparent targeting from activist shareholders over the company's DEI programs.

"Bring them on," he told CNBC on January 22. "We are going to continue to reach out to the Black community, the Hispanic community, the LGBT community, the veterans community."

Goldman Sachs

Solomon said that while he'd heard of shareholder proposals, he hadn't yet reviewed them.

"We're advising our clients. They think about these things," Solomon said in a separate interview with CNBC on January 22. "They think about decarbonization, they think about climate transition. They think about their businesses, how they find talent, the diversity of the talent they find all over the world."

Goldman Sachs' stated inclusion goals are geared toward funneling more women into leadership positions, making "progress towards racial equity," and ensuring diversity both among its vendors and in its boardroom.

Cisco

In an interview with Axios on January 22, Chuck Robbins, the CEO of Cisco, said that a diverse workforce being better was an inarguable fact.

"I think the pendulum swings a little wide in both directions. And for us, it's about finding the equilibrium," Robbins said, adding: "You cannot argue with the fact that a diverse workforce is better."

Robbins added that DEI was being discussed as "single issue" but that he believed it's far more complex.

"And in reality, it's made up of 150 different things, and maybe seven of them got a little out of hand," he said. "I think those six or seven things are going to get solved, and then you're going to be left with common sense."

Costco

Costco has been clear about its support for DEI, even as it faces mounting pressure from conservative groups to walk back its policies.

Nearly all of Costco's shareholders rejected a proposal by the National Center for Public Policy Research last week that was similar to the one received by JPMorgan. It would have required Costco to issue a report on the legal and financial risks of DEI policies.

"The overwhelming support of our shareholders' vote really puts an answer to that question," Costco CEO Ron Vachris said.

Costco's board has also previously issued statements reaffirming the company's dedication to DEI.

"Our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary," the board wrote in December.

The company continues to face scrutiny for its policies, as 19 Republican attorneys general sent a letter to Vachris urging him to end what they called "divisive and discriminatory DEI practices."

• Donald Trump and activists are taking aim at DEI programs in government and the corporate world.
• Fortune 500 companies, like Meta and Walmart, have begun scaling back some DEI initiatives.
• Yet a defense of DEI by JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon and leaders at Costco show the efforts aren't dead.

DEI might be down, but it's not dead.

One of President Donald Trump's first executive orders upon returning to office aimed to stomp out federal DEI programs, a pledge he made on the campaign trail. Before Trump's inauguration, industry bellwethers Meta, McDonald's, and Walmart had announced plans to roll back at least some of their diversity, equity, and inclusion work.

On Friday, Target said it was ending its several programs related to diversity.

Yet, elsewhere in the corporate world, there are still high-profile supporters. Take Jamie Dimon. This week, the JPMorgan CEO defended the bank's DEI work as activist shareholders appear to be targeting the company, among other financial heavyweights, over their DEI programs.

"Bring them on," Dimon told CNBC on Wednesday in reference to the critical investors.

Costco has also shown support for DEI in the days leading up to Trump's return to the Oval Office. Then, on Thursday, the retailer's shareholders overwhelmingly defeated a proposal from the National Center for Public Policy Research that would have required Costco to produce a report on its DEI work — a move the board opposed as being both politically biased and a waste of resources.

Many companies stepped up or talked more about their DEI efforts after the 2020 murder of George Floyd and the racial justice protests that followed.

Yet diversity efforts have been under attack in recent months, first by conservative activists and now by Trump, prompting many companies to reconsider their advocacy for progressive initiatives.

Trump's executive order has the potential to ripple further through the private sector. The president wants federal agencies to identify "the most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners" across public companies and nonprofits for possible civil investigations.

Still, the companies that are sticking by DEI seem unperturbed.

More innovation, smarter decisions

One of the reasons some major companies are doubling down on DEI today is because they say it's good for business.

Dimon, for example, said JPMorgan's efforts to reach out to the Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ+, and veterans groups, among others, were "90% for-profit." He spoke to CNBC on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In the company's most recent annual report, issued in April, Dimon wrote that JPMorgan's work around DEI leads to "more innovation, smarter decisions and better financial results" for the company and the economy. A JPMorgan spokesperson declined to comment further to BI.

At Costco, 98% of shareholders voted against a measure that would have required the retailer to investigate any legal or financial risks tied to the company's DEI work. The results followed a unanimous recommendation by the board urging them to reject the proposal.

The board wrote in December that its commitment to running a business "rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary." Costco did not respond to BI's request for further comment.

About half of US residents are female, while more than 40% consider themselves non-white, according to the nonprofit USAFacts.

Activists are targeting DEI programs

Other companies have made pitches in favor of DEI. Apple has encouraged investors to vote against a shareholder proposal to jettison its DEI programs. In a filing this month, it criticized the petition as one that would constrain Apple's "ability to manage its own ordinary business operations, people and teams, and business strategies."

Some of that pressure from investors comes as activists, like the influencer Robby Starbuck, have pushed companies — sometimes successfully, in the case of Walmart — to alter their programs.

A Walmart spokesperson told BI that the company remains committed to "creating a culture where everyone can be successful, and ensuring we are a Walmart for everyone."

Meta's vice president of human resources, Janelle Gale, wrote in a memo this month that the parent of Facebook and Instagram would cease to have a team focused on DEI. She also said that the term DEI had "become charged" because it's sometimes seen as a "practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others."

In Target's announcement Friday, Kiera Fernandez, the company's chief community impact and equity officer, wrote that, as a company that sees millions of customers daily, "we understand the importance of staying in step with the evolving external landscape."

Part of that shifting landscape, as Meta's Gale noted in her memo, involves what's legal. That reassessment follows the Supreme Court's 2023 decision ending affirmative action in college admissions. While it's not permissible to practice DEI in a way that becomes discriminatory, the Trump administration's push to weaken DEI could prompt added scrutiny of corporate programs, legal experts told BI.

Meta, McDonald's, and Target didn't respond to BI's requests for further comment. Apple didn't immediately respond to an inquiry sent outside normal business hours.

Even before the White House's pushback, it was already a tough political environment for DEI, which critics often assail for prioritizing gender or ethnicity over merit. In addition, some who sympathize with the aims of DEI programs contend that some of the efforts aren't effective and need to be reimagined.

'A business imperative'

Companies might be convinced to stay the course on DEI because such efforts are often part of a strategy to attract and keep the best workers, Diana Scott, US human capital center leader at The Conference Board, told BI. The Conference Board describes itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit entity. As part of its work, it operates councils for business leaders in areas including diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

The majority of execs Scott talks with from the large companies that make up the think tank's membership say they plan to continue their DEI work.

"For them, it's a business imperative," she said.

Having a diverse workforce where the focus is on equity — things like fairness in opportunities and in how workers are rewarded — leads to better culture and collaboration, Scott said. That, in turn, drives innovation and better business results.

"People don't view this as a zero-sum game," she said, referring to the views on DEI among many of the business leaders she talks to.

Some DEI efforts haven't been working

That support doesn't mean, however, that there aren't DEI efforts that couldn't be improved, Scott said.

Some researchers agree.

Iris Bohnet, a behavioral economist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and coauthor of the book "Make Work Fair," told BI that some measures, like diversity training, too often fail to change behaviors that could be influenced by bias, such as decisions on hiring, promotions, or performance appraisals.

"What we have been doing in the past five to 10 years really hasn't been working," she said.

That's one reason to revisit — yet not abandon — DEI, Bohnet said. Focusing on ideas like fairness could create greater buy-in from skeptics, she said.

Many workers support DEI

Another reason some employers are likely to stick with DEI is because employees often support it.

In an August survey of some 1,300 workers and executives at US companies, 58% of respondents told the Conference Board that their organization put an appropriate amount of effort into DEI. About one in five workers said their employer didn't go far enough.

For groups that have historically often faced a tough time on the job, DEI often matters a great deal. About half of women and 56% of Black workers told the Conference Board they wouldn't work for an organization that didn't regard it as important.

"Many of these companies have been practicing DEI for decades," Scott said. "This is not performative for them."

Jennie Glazer, CEO of the think tank Coqual, which focuses on barriers to advancement for underrepresented people in the workplace, told BI that its members, which include big companies like JPMorgan, believe that "inclusive" workplaces are more effective.

"Diverse teams make better decisions and solve problems faster," she said.

That's why she thinks it's unlikely that many companies will ultimately abandon all of their efforts in this area.

"We are going to have a very multicultural workforce, whether or not you invest in DEI," she said.