 Over
the past 15 years, Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., has been at the forefront
of developing and implementing innovative concepts and strategies for
maximizing organizational and individual potential through Diversity
Management. He currently serves as CEO of R. Thomas Consulting & Training,
Inc., and President of The American Institute for Managing Diversity (AIMD).
In 1984, concerned about the inability of
America’s organizations to maximize the contribution of diverse employees,
Dr. Thomas founded AIMD as a non-profit research and education enterprise.
He and his staff became known as the seminal source for managing diversity
concepts and strategies. The team focused initially on workforce
diversity. They later expanded their focus to create a diversity framework
for addressing general management issues such as change management, functional coordination, the
integration of multiple lines of business, and acquisitions and mergers.
Dr. Thomas is the author of five
published books: The Giraffe and Elephant: A Diversity Fable (A
publication of the American Institute for Managing Diversity, Inc., 2002);
Building a House for Diversity: A Fable about a Giraffe and an Elephant
offers New Strategies for Today’s Workforce (AMACOM, a division of
the American Management Association, 1999); Redefining Diversity (AMACOM,
1996); Differences Do Make a Difference (AIMD, 1992); and Beyond
Race and Gender: Unleashing the Power of Your Total Work Force by Managing
Diversity (AMACOM, 1991). He is also the author of several articles,
such as the Harvard Business Review article “From Affirmative
Action to Affirming Diversity” (March-April 1990), which alerted Corporate
America to the need for moving beyond EEO in addressing the challenge of
empowering a diverse workforce. He contributes to several periodicals and
trade publications. In addition to his writing, Dr. Thomas has developed a
series of video tapes.
Dr. Thomas earned a D.B.A. in
Organizational Behavior from Harvard University, an M.B.A. in Finance from
the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in Mathematics Summa Cum Laude from
Morehouse College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He has also
served as Secretary of Morehouse College, Dean of the Graduate School of
Business Administration at Atlanta University, assistant professor at the
Harvard Business School, and instructor at Morehouse College.
In 1998, the National Academy of Human
Resources elected and installed Dr. Thomas as a Fellow. He has also
been recognized by The Wall Street Journal as one of the top ten
consultants in the country, and cited by Human Resource Executive
as one of HR’s Most Influential People. In 1995, he received the American Society for Training and Development’s, “Distinguished
Contribution to Human Resource Development” Award. Dr. Thomas has been
active for more than 20 years as a consultant to numerous Fortune 500
companies, corporations, professional firms, government entities,
non-profit organizations and academic institutions, and he has served as a
frequent speaker at national conferences and industry seminars.
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