As our name implies and our mission states, we believe every company, and person, should be a work in progress. As such, we believe our job as a collection of individuals is to create an environment that promotes the personal and professional growth of everyone who spends time within our walls, and that also benefits those who we interact with outside. As we work to build a place we can be proud of now, and ten years from now, we will hold true to the belief that the job is never done and that it takes bold action, not just words, to prove what we believe.
As WIP continues to grow and evolve, we’ll be closely monitoring the demographic make-up of our agency, and we’ve set internal goals to generate real changes. Additionally, for the second year in a row, we have shared our data with AgencyDEI, who are on a mission to bring data transparency, accountability, knowledge-sharing and ultimately change to our industry.
Chris Edwards is an Executive Creative Director with an award-winning career spanning more than 25 years. He’s also the author of BALLS: It Takes Some to Get Some, a memoir that chronicles his pioneering gender transition which began back at a time before “transgender” was even a word. Chris is currently the ECD at Small Army in Boston and serves as a consultant to agencies and clients looking to reach a transgender audience authentically or adapt corporate policy and culture to be more inclusive.
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Jolly is a Senior Council trademark and intellectual property lawyer, with over 20 years of experience, working locally in Boulder at leading law firm Holland & Hart LLP. Previously Jolly spent more than 10 years as in-house counsel with L’Oreal. Jolly has been named to The National Black Lawyers Top 100 – Colorado, 2021 and is serving as a 2021 Fellow on the Legal Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD).
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Keni Thacker is a 10-year diversity, equity, cultural, and inclusion change catalyst and one of Business Insiders' top DEI consultants who helps companies big and small show up with purpose where art and commerce meet and humanity often falls short. He is also the founder of 100 Roses From Concrete, a nonprofit organization that develops professionals of color in advertising, marketing media, and public relations.
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Veena Abraham is the co-founder of EQU Advisors, a higher education and non-profit advisory group serving distinguished educational and cultural institutions across the nation. In her role, Veena draws upon her experience as an immigration attorney, university administrator, and consultant to increase diversity among executive leaders. Prior to becoming a higher education consultant, Veena worked for the advancement teams of both her alma maters of Georgetown University and University of Miami.
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BEHIND THE CAMERA
In 2021 we established a vision for production with our key clients. We set goals to work with more female/minority directors, editors, and female/minority owned businesses in all of the production partner categories: production, editorial, finishing, vfx, music, mix, trafficking, business affairs. To date in 2022 we’ve made significant progress in the makeup of the leaders on our productions behind the camera.
IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA
The people in our advertising should ultimately look like our brand’s customers. Using our understanding of our customer bases we are setting goals for positive representational change in our on-camera casts, by starting with eliminating writing and comp bias, opening the aperture at the casting level, exploring different family types, body types, differing abilities and gender roles.
RESPECT
We are continuing to work hard to correct the inequities that exist when styling people of color – both hair and makeup and lighting – to show everyone in their true and best light when in front of the camera.
EMPLOYEE COUNCIL
In 2022 we launched the Employee Council, to help support and maintain a positive culture at WIP. The EC works primarily to create a dialogue between the employees and leadership team, with the goal of identifying and executing initiatives that benefit all within our walls, mapping back to our journey and belief that everyone is a work in progress and furthermore – it is everyone’s right to contribute to making our agency a work in progress.
OPENING SHOT
Opening Shot is a program created to promote diversity and inclusivity in the advertising industry by providing opportunities for individuals from diverse backgrounds to shadow professionals on an actual shoot.
GROWTH INITIATIVE
The G.R.O.W.T.H.(Giving Real Opportunity With Talent & Heart) Initiative was created by 100 Roses From Concrete founder Keni Thacker, former Program Creator of the J.Walter Thompson (now Wunderman Thompson) Young Commodores program. The program allows a select group of multicultural college students to gain advertising, marketing, media, and public relations experience over ten weeks. WIP was a G.R.O.W.T.H. Initiative scholarship sponsor in 2022.
WAATBP
Where Are All The Black People (WAATBP) is unlike any other industry conference. It's an annual diversity conference that exists to address and correct the scarcity of people of color within the advertising industry. WIP was a conference and scholarship sponsor in 2022.