Every year during its Women of Influence Awards, GlobeSt. recognizes Diversity Champions—individuals who go above and beyond in their efforts to ensure equality within the commercial real estate industry. Head of business finance and Shawmut’s Diversity Leadership Council co-chair Christina Arico has been selected as a 2024 Diversity Champion for her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at Shawmut and industrywide. Read Christina’s profile on GlobeSt.com here and below.
Cristina Arico is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion at Shawmut Design and Construction and across the industry. With a focus on advocating for underrepresented employees, Arico helped found the firm’s women’s networking group from concept through executive approval to execution. That effort opened doors for other diversity initiatives including the firm’s diversity leadership council, through which Arico established a partnership with Deloitte Human Capital and Catalyst to build awareness of unconscious bias, improve managerial, promotion, and mentorship systems, and use data to establish accountability — creating a strategic framework to advance toward Shawmut’s goal of workplace equity. She was selected as the council’s co-chair by Shawmut’s CEO and worked closely with Deloitte Human Capital to ensure strategies being implemented were effective and sustainable. Arico also oversees the firm’s regional diversity leadership councils composed of more than 70 employees that provide local resources across Shawmut’s different offices and drive progress through training, organization memberships, panels and events. Arico joined Shawmut in 2001 as an accounts payable supervisor in New England and has been promoted multiple times. She now is head of business finance for the company.