The LGBTQ+ Board Alliance Advisory Board
Beth Ford is President and CEO of Land O’Lakes, Inc. Both a Fortune 200 company and a century-old farmer and retail member-owned cooperative, Land O’Lakes operates in all 50 states and more than 60 countries and touches half the harvested acres in America.
Ford, who has held senior positions in seven companies in six industries, leads not only by delivering financial performance, but also by addressing the important global issues and structural changes that can improve areas directly impacted by food and agriculture. During her tenure, Land O’Lakes has focused on its members, the technology that enables them, and on ensuring the vibrance and connection of the communities in which they live and work. Working to close the digital divide, she convened the American Connection Project and contributed to the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which included $65 billion for rural connectivity. She regularly addresses issues around global food security, noting food security is national security.
Recently named as one of the 2024 TIME100 Most Influential People in the World, Ford serves on the President’s Export Council, the Boards of Directors for the Business Roundtable and Starbucks; three additional past public boards including BlackRock, Inc., the world’s largest asset manager, and numerous other industry, non-profit and university boards. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University and a master’s degree in business from Columbia University Business School. She is in the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) Supply Chain Hall of Fame and holds a Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree from Iowa State University. Ford has been recognized by many media–including being listed among Fortune’s Most Powerful Women and World’s Greatest Leaders, profiled in The New York Times and on “60 Minutes,” and featured in the “Titans” category of TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies in the World.
Dame Julia Hoggett joined the London Stock Exchange Group in April 2021 and is CEO of the London Stock Exchange plc and the Head of Digital and Securities Markets for LSEG. Previously, Julia was at the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as Director of Market Oversight, overseeing the conduct of market participants. She joined the FCA in 2014 to run the Wholesale Banking Supervision Department. Prior to this, she was a Managing Director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, running various fixed income origination businesses in EMEA. Julia was previously a Board Member and CEO of DEPFA ACS BANK in Ireland. She began her career at JPMorgan.
Julia holds a degree in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University and undertook a research scholarship at Kings College, Cambridge University on public policy in East Africa. Julia was honoured as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours List 2024 for services to business and finance.
Julia was included in Financial News’ 100 Most Influential Women in Europe’s Financial Markets (2010-2012, 2021-2023), and awarded Industry Leader of the year 2023 by City AM. Julia has been an active speaker on Diversity and Inclusion in the City for two decades.
Darren Walker is president of the Ford Foundation, a $16 billion international social justice philanthropy. Under his leadership, the Ford Foundation became the first non-profit in US history to issue a $1 billion designated social bond to stabilize non-profit organizations in the wake of COVID-19.
Before joining Ford, Darren was vice president at the Rockefeller Foundation, overseeing global and domestic programs. In the 1990s, he was COO of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, Harlem’s largest community development organization.
Darren co-founded both the US Impact Investing Alliance and the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy. He serves on many boards, including the National Gallery of Art, Carnegie Hall, the High Line, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, Committee to Protect Journalists, Ralph Lauren, Bloomberg Inc. and PepsiCo.
Educated exclusively in public schools, Darren was a member of the first Head Start class in 1965 and received BA, BS, and JD degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He has been included on numerous leadership lists including Time’s annual 100 Most Influential People, Rolling Stone’s 25 People Shaping the Future and Wall Street Journal 2020 Philanthropy Innovator of the Year. He is the recipient of 16 honorary degrees, including Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal. In 2022, he was awarded France’s highest cultural honor, the Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, for leadership in the arts. In 2023 he was also appointed by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II to the Order of the British Empire for services to UK/US relations. In 2024, President Joe Biden awarded Darren the National Humanities Medal, which honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of and engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects.
Jim Fitterling is Chair and Chief Executive Officer for Dow Inc., a global materials science company with 2023 sales of approximately $45 billion. He became CEO in July 2018 and was elected Board Chair in April 2020. Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer for the Materials Science Division of DowDuPont, an $86 billion holding company.
Fitterling has played a key role in Dow’s transformation from a lower-margin, commodity company to one deeply focused on higher-growth markets that value innovation – with the ambition to be most innovative, customer-centric, inclusive, and sustainable materials science company in the world.
He joined Dow in 1984 and served in a variety of sales, marketing, supply chain, corporate development, and business operations positions, including spending more than 10 years in leadership roles across Asia.
At his direction, Dow became a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) to drive innovation, increase much-needed resources, and take decisive actions to put an end to plastic waste in the environment. Additionally, he served as the business lead in Dow’s launch of its next-generation sustainability goals and drove the introduction of its accelerated plastics circularity and climate and greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.
A passionate advocate for inclusion and diversity, Fitterling leads Dow’s drive to diversify its global talent and is widely recognized for his work supporting non-discrimination and workplace equality.
Lord Browne is Chairman of BeyondNetZero, a climate growth equity fund established in partnership with General Atlantic. He served as Group Chief Executive of international energy company BP from 1995 to 2007, having joined the company in 1966 as a university apprentice. He led BP through a period of significant growth and transformation, including a merger with Amoco in 1998. His landmark speech at Stanford University in 1997 established BP as a global leader in the way it thought about and sought to address climate change. In 2007, Lord Browne joined Riverstone, where he was co-head of the world’s largest renewable energy private equity fund until 2015. He is Chairman of Windward, a global maritime predictive intelligence company and Chairman of SparkCognition, an artificial intelligence technology company.
Lord Browne is independent co-Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Council on Science and Technology, Chairman of the Francis Crick Institute, Chairman of the Courtauld Institute of Art, and a former Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering as well as a past President of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Lord Browne was educated St John’s College, Cambridge, where he earned a BA degree in physics. In addition to his degree in physics from the University of Cambridge, he holds an MS degree in business from Stanford University, California. He is a former Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Cambridge Judge Business School.
Lord Allen has extensive corporate experience across a number of sectors, including finance, media, hospitality and retail. Having played a key role in the creation of ITV, he is recognised for his significant contribution to the television industry. Charles is currently Chair of Global Media & Entertainment Limited, THG, Balfour Beatty plc and the Invictus Games Foundation and also Advisory Chair of Moelis & Company. He was also formerly Chair of Granada Media plc, Chief Executive of Granada Group plc and ITV plc and Chair of EMI Music, Endemol and The British Red Cross. Lord Allen has also served on the boards of Tesco plc, Virgin Media and GET AS and been Chief Adviser to the Home Office and a Senior Adviser to Goldman Sachs.
Lord Allen was Vice Chair of the London 2012 bid company, a non-executive director of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and Chair of the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002. In 2002 he was awarded a CBE for his services to Sport and Community and in 2012 appointed a Knight Bachelor for his services to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Patricia L. Lewis was named executive vice president and chief sustainability officer of UnitedHealth Group in February 2022. As the company’s first chief sustainability officer, she is responsible for leading the development and implementation of the enterprise’s sustainability strategy and commitments focused on health equity, diversity, equity and inclusion, environment and social responsibility.
As the chairperson of the United Health Foundation Board of Directors, Lewis was instrumental in directing a groundbreaking $100 million investment to promote a more diverse health care workforce by 2033. Prior to joining the company as executive vice president and chief human resources officer in 2019, Lewis served as senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Lockheed Martin, with a diverse global workforce operating in more than 50 countries. Prior to joining Lockheed Martin in 2011, Lewis held various positions in human resources at IBM Corporation and DuPont.
Throughout her career, she has led global human capital teams across multiple industries with a focus on developing diverse pipelines of talent. Lewis was appointed to the Lear Corporation’s Board of Directors in 2020, and currently serves as chairperson of the Compensation Committee. She is a member of the Executive Leadership Council, and previously served on the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Board of Trustees and on the board of PFLAG.
Lewis has been honored as one of the 2024 Most Influential Executives in Corporate America by Savoy Magazine and was recognized among the Most Influential Black Corporate Directors in 2021. She was named to the Top 100 Chief Sustainability Officers in 2023 by Sustainability Magazine and was also the Diversity Leadership Award recipient at the 2013 Black Engineer of the Year conference. Lewis has a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Relations Management from the University of Bridgeport.