A Father, His Daughter & the Path to True DEI w/ Ebbie Parsons III of Yardstick Management

Our guest on the fifth episode of the Storied Future Podcast is Ebbie Parsons, III.
Ebbie is the founder and managing partner of Yardstick Management, a renowned Black-owned management consulting firm based in Atlanta, Georgia that helps clients transform their organizations to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. They count among their clients some of the top companies in the world, including Netflix, Prudential, EY, Whirlpool, Amazon, Medtronic, and LinkedIn.
Ebbie embodies a relentless pursuit of a future defined by true equity and inclusion, from the boardroom to the front lines of a company.
In this conversation, Chris and Ebbie talk about: 

• His dream of becoming an astronaut as a five-year old in Detroit, and the belief his parents instilled in him that he could achieve anything he set his mind to. 
• His jarring transition from Detroit to what he calls the “real world,” where he saw how the evil of racism wreaked havoc on people’s beliefs about the future and their access to opportunity. 
• A meeting at Olive Garden in 2003 where he and his friends cast a vision for the future that eventually led to the creation of Yardstick Management. 
• The future he envisions, and how C-suite leaders can move beyond performative DEI initiatives to bring about true and lasting change. 

And much more.

Content warning: This episode includes discussion of an experience of Ebbie’s that involved a threat of racialized police violence.