But my absolutely favorite part, and this says a lot about me, is when you're sitting at that light and you push that pedal grade it is gone, like it is absolutely fair, and it's like that feeling is great. And then and then you get that like not only the vehicle's just gone, you're not waiting to accelerate, you don't have to worry about it, but it's silent. It's quiet. Now, why do I love that? Because I love music? Right, Like I don't want to to turn out my music
just because I'm on the highway. I'm Will Lucas and this is black tag green money tell them. Agruti is the chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at General Motors and it spent more than twenty year years to the company, having started as an engineer. Today, she's focused on weaving the EI into the very fabric of the company, working in partnership with internal and external leaders to champion the
broad and diverse war force they have. On this episode, recorded at two is afro Tech conference in Austin, Texas, tell Us speaks with Blacky's co founder and CEO Jeff Nelson about corporate commitment to d e I Electric vehicles and why black people should care about the future. Ev I'm really excited about this. We are talking about electric cars and why black people should care and and and uh teba, it's a pleasure to have you here. How
are you? I'm great? I am. I can't even say how happy I am to be here with all of you in Austin, but more specifically here atro tech. That that's wonderful and so I want to dive right into it. So you are the chiefs Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at General Motors. Okay, now that's my day job. That's your day job. Right. GM is a car company, So I'm curious. We're gonna talk about why black people should care about electric vehicles, but first let's talk about why
GM cares about diversity, right? Why is that important to a car company like GM? Yeah, it's critically important to GM for a whole lot of reasons, but I'll say, you know, most fundamentally, because we care about the future. We care about the future, and there is no real substantial future that engages the public if it doesn't include diverse groups. And and we recognize that, not just because
we're trying to sell to customers. But we're working to create a future that's more sustainable, a future where people have more access to the things that they need. And in order for us to do that well, we need to have diverse team members that can help us think about it. We need to be engaged in communities that are extremely diverse so they can help us think about how to do this well. You know, how do we create a more animal future where people matter and we're
helping them have better outcomes? And so that's that's what we care about. That's so important, and I think we should just give GM around of applause for taking that stance, because not enough companies may talk about it, but they don't necessarily put the action into it. And GM has shown their commitment by hiring you bringing you here to afro Tech, So we're excited about that. And you know, what you've touched on is something that is important to
why we do afro tech. What we find is that often black people are creators but not owners, right, And so as we think about these new industries that are being created, these new verticals that are emerging, it's important for black people to be there at the forefront so that we can be creators and owners going forward. So you talked about why this is important to GM. How does your work on a day to day basis contribute to that vision of hy GM wants to have diverse
people uh and and inclusive workforce. What are you doing on a day today to contribute to that? Yeah, so my days are busy that there's a lot going on. You know, we aspire to be what we say, the most inclusive company in the world. Now, we don't want to be alone. We want other companies to truly be on this mission as well. Um, but what we're really doing first and foremost is is we're focusing on us, who we are, what our intent is, how we're living
every single day. And so I hope our team at GM literally practice inclusion and we coach our team members on inclusion and and I support my team as they're doing that, and I build partnerships with leaders across the company so that we can have really coaching conversations about you know, are we including the ideas of our diverse team members and how are we doing it and how can we get better at it? Because it's not good enough for me and my role to to just have
people their representation is price of entry. It's baseline, but that's not what it's about. Really, what it's about is having those ideas heard, you know, allowing our diverse community to innovate together and not only the expecting it. So I spent a lot of time on you know, hey,
you as leaders. You know, in my role, I'm focused on the leadership team and how do you create environments where we're expecting people to innovate together, and we're expecting people to collaborate together, and where we realize when we may have great ideas being left on the table because we're not being as exclusive as we could be, you know,
that's really it. And then helping them understand, you know, we are a business and so and I believe in this business that we're in and we need to kill it, right, we need to kill it. And so what does that mean. That means that we have to rise to the occasion of hearing things that maybe we haven't heard before, and we have to let those voices come through, right. So I spent a lot of time with helping leaders under stand how to connect diversity, equity and inclusion work that
we're doing too great business outcomes. I love that, and it's so important that you say that, And I hope all companies and not even companies, but but those that work at companies, even if you're not an official at the company, if you're an employee, that's so important. Diversity, equity and inclusion isn't charity, right, it's not. It's not just that, it's not corporate philanthropy. Now, it is essential
to being a successful business. Yes, if you're not doing it, you're not going to be successful as successful as you could be, you know. And a lot of times I remember, you know, when you know hit and I actually came into my role soon after that. But I've been working on diversity inclusion for years from where I was in the business and when when we started, you know, having a different kind of conversation, people said, well, what's wrong with us, what's wrong with us? What are we doing wrong?
Well I could entertain that question and and talk about that, but it's really about what opportunity are we missing? Yes, that's really what it's about. And people don't realize it's hard to see what's not there, you know. And so as we work on diversity equal inclusion, what we're doing is we're creating a future that is, you know, more substantial for the people in the company and for the
communities outside of the company than it otherwise would have been. Absolutely, And and so when we think about what GM is trying to do with electric vehicles, Uh, there are many reasons for consumers to think about electric cars, but one at the top of the list is the environment. Right. The the environment is in dire straits, and it's op
precious resource and it's limited. But as we think about black people, right, and I say this as we have just had an election that we're we're still you know, waiting to to figure out exactly what the meaning of it is. But throughout history and unfortunately, uh, throughout the last a few years, Uh, it seems like it's been more pronounced than ever. But black people are are sort of always wondering what is the future home for us? Right? Um?
And there are a lot of issues voting rights, economic quality, social justice that are probably at the top of black people's minds when they think about, well, the future, what we're worried about, what the government should be doing, what companies should be focused on. So, can you talk about why black people should care about the environment, Why is that an important issue for black people to take seriously and to really think about how they can contribute and
make positive change. There are a lot of reasons, but I'll start with one of the things you didn't mention in your list, which is healthy. Okay, health, our health, our longevity, our ability to raise children that are in an environment that is more positive of them than the
ones we were raised in, particularly where we tend to live. Right, we know that our communities and other socio economically disadvantaged communities are the ones that are most disadvantage when it comes to the state of climate and the state of the environment. Like there's there's no way that we can deny that. And at GM, we're working towards this vision of zero crashes, zero missions, and zero congestion, and that center one zero emissions is one that is tied to
the health of people. And so when you look at the Black community, you know we have a long way to go. We know that our social determinants are not leading us towards having healthier lives, and so um when you focus on the environment, when you focus on climate, it takes one of those social determinants of health and it moves us moves it into our favor. Okay, so it's it's it's really critically important for our community for that reason. Um, I could listen anymore, but well, I
think what you're saying is resume. I mean I heard people you know, we're going to church. Now you know you're you're, you're you're really ministering too. I think what we need to hear write the environment and thinking about electric vehicles in many ways, Yes, it's an economic issue, but it's also a health issue. It's about our lives,
is right. And you know, as we said earlier, as the world is changing, as the world is shifting, for too long, black people, women, other marginalized groups have been afterthoughts, and so it's important. And again I applaud GM, and I applaud you for the work that you do for making sure that we're in the conversation earlier that that's
that that is important. And and so GM is clearly up to the task of doing the work that's necessary to produce products and vehicles that are going to move us to the kind of future that's going to prolong the environment, that is going to allow black people to
live healthier lives. Um and and and and just looking at some of the numbers, right the Biden administration his pleasure to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by at least fifty Now, I don't know if you all like me, but sometimes you hear and you think, oh, that's a long way away, but you're like, oh, it's two. That's like next week's tomorrow. Um. And then the goal further is to get to net zero emissions, by which you've already spoken about how GM is focused on that. So
GM is clearly up to the task. But you can make the vehicles, and I think you know your previous answer sort of made this case, but would love for you to to to underscore a bit more. How do you get people to buy them? Especially when electric vehicles are on average more expensive. So if we've got black people in particular, who are already economically disadvantaged, we've got a recession either in it or it's on the horizon.
How do you get people to say, Okay, I get what you're saying about health outcomes, Like get what you're saying about the environment, but I can't afford it. How do how do we think about that? And how is GM thinking about that? Yeah? Absolutely, and there's a lot of things. It's like, even if I can afford it, why should I spend my money on that? Yes, if we're keeping it real, you know, there are a lot of things we can choose to spend our money on. UM.
So it's it's it's a pretty complex puzzle. UM. But when you think about our community, one of the things that we're absolutely focused on for all communities that once again positively impacts the black community is creating products that are available at all different price points. Okay, so we've
had some electric vehicles out UM for years. Most you know, most recently might think about the Chevy Bolt and things like that, and they're smaller vehicles and you look at that size versus that price, and you say, no, I'm not really interested in that, right, I'm just you know, keeping it real, we have to increase those product offerings, and so we're doing that. So we started on a on a more expensive front because we had to allow
the technology to improve. And this is afrotech. We understand that over time, as you develop and innovate on technology, the cost of that technology comes down, and so that's what we've been doing. So we started with you know, some more expensive vehicle sets. But we just announced, um, a couple of months ago, that we're gonna have a Chevy Blazer coming out. It's gonna be at a price point electric Blazer, because the Blaze is already out there.
They're fantastic. Um, but that's gonna be a thirty I'm sorry, Chevy equal not as many to be a thirty thou dollar price point, right, Chevy Blazer is gonna be slightly more around. But now you have a vehicle that's gonna be sized for a family, that's that's gonna allow you to get around, that's going to be at a price point that's that's very reasonable. And so that's one thing we do. But then there are other things we have to consider. You know, you have the vehicle, how are
you going to charge it? And for our community, um, you know who often lives in urban centers, right, not often in suburbs. You've got things to think about, Right, Okay, we've got how many people in this apartment building and
how many charging stations? You know, this is this is a big deal and um, and so we're we're innovating in that area in a lot of different ways, and we're partnering with with several different organizations, both for profit and nonprofit, and particularly nonprofits that are focused on the Black community and for other underrepresented communities. We actually created UM.
We actually have UM an Equitable Climate Action Framework that we put together that's underpinned by a fifty million dollar UM fifty million dollar fund, Equitable Climate Fund, where we're partnering with UM organizations in the Black community that can help us think through how do you do this? Well? Right, you know, we understand, we know a lot like technically, like you said, we're up to the task to getting
these vehicles out. We're up to the task to creating charging infrastructure that makes sense with different levels of charging and all of that. But the real question is what do people really need that are in the city that want to own an electric vehicle? And how do we deliver it in a way that they'll understand what we're doing and why we're doing it and it's gonna work for them. And we can't get all those answers by ourselves.
That's that is a gym. That is that is truly a gym that you just drop, yeah, please please please please flap for that, because what you're talking about is the total experience of ownership. That's exactly right, right, And you know, if companies just look at it as well, let's make them affordable. Well you're you know, the m s r P. The price point can be affordable, but if people can't live with it, if they can't charge it,
they can't sustain the ownership of the vehicle. And that only comes when you've got diverse voices in the room. And that when we've got to tell us at the table to sort of think about that and make sure that all the leadership is aligned to building that stuff
into the product experience up front. Yeah. Absolutely, And you know, part of what we have to do with that, and part some of the partnerships were forming, is we have to educate our community to really understand what's going on around them, right, because there's only so much you can get off of Twitter and different you know platforms, you only get so much um But to truly understand what's going on and what are the things we need to think about so we know what to raise our voice
in is really important. So educating the black community is critically important. And the other thing that we're committed to is getting more people educated in the environment and climate in you know, this future of electric vehicles, so that they can be participating in policy tables right in in local government forums and things like that with the knowledge and the expertise, so that that diverse voice at the table is actually affecting change. It's going to be to
benefit of diverse communities and particularly the black community. You know, I was pretty shocked. I um. I had started working in sustainability space several years go before I moved into my current role, and you know, like spent you know, several years at GM as as an engineer. Very few women, so I moved into sustainability or there are a lot more women, but there were no black people. I'm surprised,
right right. And so you think about that, and you think about the change that's going on in the world and how the world is more focused on sustainability. Think about Paris Accord two one percent now, and we need to have enough people in the room that are looking at environmental justice and how do we create equitable futures for the community. And so we're also committed to that. So by show of hands, how many people in the audience use an electric vehicle? Raise your hand. I'm just curious,
So we got a few hands up. But as you can see, there's a huge opportunity to get more people to to get to get on the bandwagon, so to speak about where the future is headed. I want you to to put on your marketing sales had real quick right, So we talked about how the environment is important and how electric vehicles contribute too, you know, reducing the effects of climate change. But what are some other reasons that you would tell people to think about as they are
considering purchasing an electric vehic? What are some of your favorite features an electric Because I love my I I switched over and you know, I'm a I'm a convert and I would evangelize it, but I am curious. What are your thoughts like, what are some of your favorite features and your experience with evs. Yeah, they are fantastic. So if you first just think about you know, I don't know how many of you have have have bought a car recently or have family members by a car recently.
But the technology inside the vehicle from a software perspective, from an integration perspective, as is grown by leaps and bound off time, and that is on steroids and electric vehicle it's it's just fantastic. You know, you know what you want is at your fingertips. It's much more user friendly, user intuitive. It needs to be, but it makes the experience really special. So you get in your car and
it and it feels different. But my absolutely favorite part, and this says a lot about me, is when you're sitting at that light and you push that pedals, great, it is gone, like it is absolutely fantastic, and and it's like that feeling is great. And then and then you get that like, not only the vehicle's just gone, you're not waiting to accelerate, you don't have to worry about it, but it's silent. It's quiet. Now why do
I love that? Because I love music? Right, Like, I don't want to have to turn up my music just because I'm on the highway, you know, I don't, I don't. I And so like that experience, the sound system experience, um, along with just the pure dependability of that of that drive, that of that electric vehicle. It's just it's fun. I agree. I'm someone that typically doesn't like driving, but in an in an electric vehicle, I'm like, let me just take a random road just for the experience. I get what
you're saying. That's that's real. That's real. So if you all aren't convinced by by what it does for the environment, if you like cars, if you like driving, I guarantee you an electric vehicle will be a much better experience and you get to enjoy that drive more. You know how you lean back and fronton Ohio. So okay, you've real, keep it real, and and but you can just enjoy
it more. That's fantastic. So I want to go back to what you were talking about earlier, which is, you know, what we talked about, the total experience of ownership and how you know, GM is working with public and private entities to think about how we can do you know, do more to build it more charging stations and urban epicenters and among other things. I want talk about the role of the government, right the the federal government in
additions to state and local government. So um, in this past Congress or this current Congress, the Infrastructure Investment in Jobs Acts, the Jobs Act was passed, which allocates a lot of federal dollars to do a lot of needed infrastructure improvements, and some of those are specifically allocated for the environment. From your perspective, in the perspective of GM, is that enough or does more need to be done at the level of the federal government but also state
local governments. Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you. I'm really glad you asked that question, particularly about the state and local governments. UM. In order for this to work well, right, and I'm not going to pretend GM is the only company on this journey, right. The whole industry is on this journey, UM, and therefore communities are on this journey. UM. In order for this to work well, we need really strong intent from a local level, from a state level, and from
the federal level. So current administration, current Congress has given a great kick start to the work that needs to be done. Seven and a half billion dollars on charging infrastructure. That is more than a little bit, okay, but it's going to take more than that, and so we need Congress UM to continue to look at how are we growing in this transition to electric vehicles and what more
can they do? And not only that, you know, and we we work very well UM at the federal level with many different agencies, with with the UM, with the e p A, with the d OE, etcetera, etcetera. UM, who are who are supporting who can give more support now through acts like UM the Infrastructure Act as well as the tax credits that we have recently. But but
we need those organizations to work well together, you know. UM. So just like at companies, companies deal with silos, you have a little bit of that at the government level, and so we need them to work well together as they you know, work on you know, their ideation of what the future looks like. Okay, So that's important at the federal level UM as well as you know, looking at potentially more UM legislation in the future. But then when you look at it from a local and state level,
states particularly can be extremely influential in this direction. And states have to decide, you know, what kind of state do they want to be, okay, and what kind of environment do they want to create for the citizens of that state. And so you know, states that you know, really think hard about this. You know, we know the state of California is way in and you know, typically what goes on in California will tend to spread to
other states in the nation. UM. And and California has put a lot of deep thought in this for a long time, and so we need other states to continue to grow their skill and their awareness and their ability, and so we work with them at the state level
to understand what their priorities are. How does that merge with what we need to have happened to take care of people in the community as we deploy electric vehicles, you know, how do we take state priorities and stack them so that you know, they're going to be aligned with a more sustainable future. But still states need to
manage their budgets and things like that. But states need to you know, really jump in and figure out, Okay, how do we want to form our mark on the future of the of electric vehicles and therefore in the future of people. And then from a local perspective, the role that the local government can play is really helping states understand, um, what's most important for those constituents like
they have to help states think and um. And that's why we partner many times with local organizations because those local organizations are tied into the local government. And as we educate people and as we create technical solutions with smaller for profit and nonprofit you know, local organizations, states get informed and can make better decisions about the community. So it's it's multi tiered, but everyone has more work to do here, right. That includes companies, and it includes governments,
and it includes community organizations. I really just want everybody to give that a round of applause because that was a master class. I really, I honestly believe that this talk gets to be required viewing for every elected official at every level of government, because you clearly just broke down how we need to be thinking as a as a nation, but also as we go state local about
this problem. And you bring so much passion and energy to this and not only to this issue, but to the cause of of what GM is committed to and hiring a diverse workforce and and building great cars. Right. So I want to kind of wrap things up by talking about your professional journey. So you've been at GM for over twenty eight years while just a little bit right, yeah, um,
and you started out as an engineer. So I'm curious, and this is really a personal question for me because I started off an engineering and now being sea level in the company, I'm curious, do you miss the day to day work of being an engineer, sort of having your hands in the mix and getting your hands dirty and building, yes, a lot. Do you try to meddle a little bit of yes, absolutely, I don't feel bad. Yeah, yeah it is. It's really funny, you know. And some
people know this, but most people don't. So I get to visit facilities all over the country and all over
the world. Um, And I'm electrical engineer. You know a lot of you know, robot programming, coding, you know, machining, equipment design, build installation improvement, you know that kind of stuff really, you know, fast moving problem solving constantly, you know, because most of my workers in manufacturing and manufacturing engineering, and I love being dirty, right and um, but more importantly,
I just love fixing things. And so I just love fixing things and solving problem and like working with a group when people are like, oh here we go again, right, and then solving that problem that you've been seeing over and over again for the last several years, you know, and then all of a sudden, you know, nailed that, right.
It's such a great feeling. And so there will be many times that you know, I'll call a plant and I'll be like, hey, you know, I'm gonna come, you know, visit you all were gonna talk a little bitout D and I. How can I support you? And then I just want to go walk the floor. And then they'll say, we'll tell what we'll do a tour. I don't want a tour. I want to just like y'all, don't have to do any preparation. I just want to go walk
the floor, talk to people, see how it's going. Right, And then on a good day, somebody will say, you know, I would say, how's it going. What's the biggest problem you're working with? And I say, oh, we've been doing this, this and this, And then I get to just go back and forth with it. Do you think about this? Did you think about that? You know? And then you man,
that's the fix I need. This sounds like the perfect job to be able to work on D and I. But then also, you know, go in and getting the reeds sometimes yeah, yeah, or when i'm you know, talking to the I T team, and I love it when they call and they're working on bias and artificial intelligence, right, and how do we make sure that in all the software development we're doing we don't have bias in that? Oh?
I love that conversation, right, And I particularly love it when some people on the phone don't know that I'm a techie, right, and then and then I started diving into the conversation. You catch them off. Guards're like, okay, you know a little something, right, I thought you were just a D and I person. Okay, that's fatastic. So um, let's yeah, let's apply for that. I love that, so ym so Um, you've been there now almost thirty years ago.
Why did you decide to go there in the first place? Oh? Wow, that's a great question. And and the question I usually get asked us why am I still there? Um? But I went in the first place. I was only planning on being at GM for three years. Wow, right, So I was. I went there because, Um, I had this plan. I was going to be designing devices, um to implant in people to help with paralysis, right or hearing deficit.
And I had an undergrad I majored in electrical engineering from my bachelor's and my masters and both I did UM. My minor was in biomedical engineering. So I had all this research, great research based experience. But I was like, well, if I'm going to design devices to go on people's bodies, I need to know how controls really work. In real life, you know, because fundamentally, you know, when you deal with tissue, it's not any different than when you're dealing with a
cable other than the levels of energy. Right. So I decided to go to work for that, and I came to GM as my second job because I could get really really great controls experience, right, you know, programmable logic controllers and all different kinds of um you know, fluid dynamics and things like that like in real life, because I didn't have as much maker experience when I was in undergrad and masters. So that's why I came. I figured I'd be able to get that in a few
years and I move on. But I stayed for the reason. Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean it's just endless opportunity to do different things. I've never been in a role. I mean, I've had very few roles that I've been in for more than a few years, you know, And so you know, solving different kinds of problems and different parts of the business has just always kind of kept me going and you know, kept me lit. I love it. I love it. Yeah, and so and so we're here
at that rotech. There are so many people here who are looking to connect with companies to get a job or to make a career pivot into tech. So can you leave us with us some advice on what can this generation that typically doesn't stay at a company for for years that they're really like, I'm going to be
there for three months? And what can this generation do to stand out to a company like g And how can you know, we think about this generation think about how to position themselves to get these jobs that are going to impact the future. Yeah, I think you know, it's interesting, particularly when you talk to tech people. You know, it's one thing if you talk to a person that
considers and stuff. A business person Okay, so a business person is kind of thinking about the whole business and all the different levels that you push and pull to make a business work, make a business profitable, make a business, make people happy, whatever. And then and then tech people are um and business people are on a spectrum to
the tech people learn a big spectrum. And many tech people are really focused on a particular type of tech right and they want to drill into that and they want to be amazing at that, which there's nothing wrong with that. But what I encourage all tech people to do is to lift your head up and get to know the business. And and no matter where you show up, you need to bloom where you're planted. You know, you show up in whatever job and whatever location. Blooming doesn't
just mean solving that technical problem. You know. The way I've been successful is by understanding why is this a problem I even need to solve in the first place? Why hasn't the problem been solved in the past. Has it been lack of investment? Has it been the way you know, lack of belief in people. Has it has it been you know, we fixed it, but that wasn't
really to fix you know? Has it been decisions made by leadership teams that marginalize your ability to actually solve the problem, like like why are we here in this moment? And when you when you dig into that, you know, even if you're in an innovative space, you know, why is it that we're not able to have the breakthroughs that we're looking for? Often you have to look at
the whole context. And tech people that look at the whole context and build relationships that help them understand the business are the most valuable because there's always give and take. You don't always get what you want, you know, but you have to understand if you're not getting what you think is best, why is that? And then who do I need to partner with to either go in a different direction right or yes? And what's going on? You know?
I think it's so critical that you do that regardless of where you are, you know, so don't be completely heads down, you know, be aware and and and make your technical decisions with as much of the bigger picture in mind as you can tell. But thank you so much. I I I enjoyed this conversation. I feel like this entire conversation was just a bunch of Mike drops. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you all for being here in attendance. And uh, I hope you
all learn as much as I did. Black Tech, Green Moneys and production to Blackvity, Afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast Network and I Hired Media is produced by Morgan Davon and me Well Lucas, with additional production support by Sarah Rogan and Rose McLucas. Special thank you to Mike and Davis van Ness ROUNDO learn more about my
guests and other tech this stuff. This is the innovators at afro tech dot com, joining Black Tech, Green Money keep us a five star rating on iTunes Get Your Money, Piece of Love two