Nathan Moore
General Counsel
In 1963, Mary Kay Ash created a company to enrich women’s lives, using the Golden Rule as a guiding business principle. Today, Mary Kay Inc. sells more than 200 premium products, contributing to wholesale sales of more than $2.2 billion. The company’s independent sales force exceeds 1.6 million independent beauty consultants in more than 30 markets worldwide.
(L to R): Veta T. Richardson of MCCA; Nathan Moore of Mary Kay Inc.; and Gary Kennedy of American Airlines
“Our diversity efforts are a natural extension of our company culture,” says Nathan Moore, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at Mary Kay Inc. “Equal opportunity is woven into our fabric. It is part of everything we do.”
The law department is a testament to the success of Ash’s principles. Despite not having a formal program, it is quite diverse. Of its 22 attorneys and paralegals, 68 percent are women and 45 percent are people of color. The department enjoys international diversity as well, with professionals from Belarus, Bolivia, Nigeria, and Taiwan. The two attorneys who report directly to Moore are both people of color, and one is a woman.
One reason attorneys stay is the company’s focus on making Mary Kay a welcoming and supportive place to work. Anyone who supervises even one employee is required to sign a set of 10 Leadership Practice Rules, reflecting the company’s commitment to treating people well. One of the rules states, “Remember that employees are real people with diverse backgrounds and multidimensional lives. Value their personal differences, recognize their individual circumstances, and respect the whole person that each person is.”
By embracing these rules and applying them through the professional development process, the law department has had little turnover since Moore took the helm in 2003.
The same principles of equal opportunity apply to selecting both outside counsel and students for the law department’s new internship program. The partner in charge of Mary Kay’s matters at its largest outside law firm is a person of color. The department’s first two interns were both women, and one was a person of color. In each case, Moore and his team selected the best person for the job; diversity was the natural result.
In the late 1990s, the company created a 13-member Culture Committee. In addition to running activities such as “Mary Kay Day,” the committee is responsible for monitoring how well the company sticks to its values, including diversity. When employees see something amiss or something well done, they can post questions or comments to the committee (anonymously, if they choose) via an intranet link. The Culture Committee reviews each posting and, when necessary, addresses issues with the executive team.
Mary Kay was named to the Fortune magazine list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” as well as one of its “100 Best Companies in America” three times. When the Dallas Business Journal presented its Best General Counsel Awards in 2005, Nathan Moore was named “Diversity Champion.”
From the November/December 2006 issue of Diversity & The Bar®