CEO Les Hiscoe Named Diversity Champion by GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum

During its annual Women of Influence Awards, GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum recognizes Diversity Champions—individuals who go above and beyond in their efforts to ensure equality within the commercial real estate industry. This includes championing the advancement of women, pushing diversity initiatives forward, and leading cultural change both within their organization and in the industry.

CEO Les Hiscoe was honored as a 2023 Diversity Champion for leading Shawmut in its progress in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Read Les’ profile on GlobeSt.com here and below.

Under Les’ leadership as CEO, Shawmut has been at the forefront of DEI in the construction industry. Shawmut’s workforce currently is 31% women, with 20% in senior roles. In addition, 34% of the recent graduates from Shawmut’s training program for recent college grads were women. Under Les’ leadership, Shawmut created a diversity leadership council, which partnered with Deloitte Human Capital and Catalyst to create a strategic framework to advance workplace equity and inclusion and the strongest, most diverse representation. As a result, Shawmut has accomplished many industry-changing programs, including achieving and continually working to maintain 100% pay and promotion equity, creating sponsorship relationships to elevate high-potential women to the leadership team, establishing a mentorship program based on a scientific algorithm that eliminates the potential for unconscious bias in the matching process, and hosting a Men Advocating Real Change training for senior leadership that puts the focus on men’s role in moving beyond awareness to advocacy using relative power and influence to remove barriers and achieve sustainable cultural change.