Kirt Walker

Kirt Walker

CEO & Board Member at Nationwide
Biography:

Kirt Walker serves as CEO & Board Member for Nationwide which is headquartered in Columbus, OH.

Profile Details

Affiliated Companies

Key Statements

"I thought about our caring culture and how proud I am of the strides we’ve made in cultivating a diverse and inclusive work environment… This is why I have signed a letter in support of a resolution before the Columbus City Council which would declare racism to be a Public Health Crisis."

"And we said, you need to share with us what you think that we could do differently as a company and what we can do differently as a country. And we also had a Standing in Unity Moving Forward together event. We just took all the associates virtually and physically and went to a big open arena area that we have here. And we just said, we're not going to allow this to happen. We announced a $1 million donation for social justice. So the NAACP, the Legal Defense Fund, the Bail Project and others. And the other thing that we did is we've made a commitment to the National Fair Housing Alliance."

"And so one of the things that we're doing is and again, tone at the top, it's starting with our board moving to our executive group and all the way through our 28,000 associates, we are going to have unconscious bias training for all of our associates. So we're going to go through the 28,000. If you become a new associate at Nationwide, automatically you'll be enrolled and you go through it. People, in most cases, don't have an intention of being biased. We all need to understand we've got our blind spots, and we have this unconscious bias that takes place."

"So where I'm going with that is the issue of social injustice. I mean, I just think the time's right to do what's right right now, and we've got to act with urgency. And I think if we do, and from a nationwide standpoint, we're going to focus on our mission, we're going to focus on our values and our culture. And we're going to keep in mind that our number one value is we value people. So we're going to continue to leverage our strategic partnerships, people like Anil, with workday here so we can be a catalyst for change."