Note: Since the sender of the email is a physician, I chose to use a medical theme for the story in this message. My Associate VP told me this was the first time she had ever seen a Vice President or above at the company use pronouns in their signature.

Hello Team,

Each June, I enjoy celebrating PRIDE Month alongside the LGBTQ+ community, but, allyship and Pride doesn’t stop on June 30. As this year’s Humana PRIDE theme reminds us: Everyone, Every day we stand with the LBGTQ+ community and celebrate that our diversity is our strength.

In reflecting on LGBTQ+ Americans in medicine, I’d like to tell you about Dr. Sara Josephine Baker (1873-1945), who created the first children’s public health agency in the U.S. (New York City, 1908). By establishing neighborhood health stations, she helped drastically reduce infant mortality and improve overall public health in the crowded city. Dr. Baker is also known for twice tracking down Mary Mallon, more commonly known as Typhoid Mary! While not publicly discussed, she was in a life-long relationship with novelist Ida Alexia Ross Wylie.

In 2022, the reality remains that LGBTQ+ individuals face significant health challenges stemming from social stigma, discrimination, and violence. I have unfortunately witnessed these challenges up close with family, friends, and my patients. The AMA has shared ways that we in the medical profession can advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, and personally, as a practicing physician, I am recommitting to these efforts.

While we redouble our efforts towards equality, PRIDE is also a time to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community! Humana’s Pride Network Resource Group has planned many virtual events and is participating in the Kentuckiana PRIDE Parade (June 18) and the St. Pete PRIDE Parade (June 25). For those in the DC area, Capital PRIDE is this Saturday, June 11.

I hope you’ll join me in reflection and celebration this month and all year.

Kate (she/her)

P.S. A small but meaningful way to promote inclusivity is to share your preferred pronouns. Click here for instructions to update your pronouns in Workday and more. You can also add them to your email signature.

Kate Goodrich, MD, MHS (she/her) Senior Vice President

This company underwent an 11% reduction in force and changes to reporting structure for 40% of staff. As the Head of Internal Communications, I managed the entire communications process including:

✅ Hourly timeline for notifications to impacted employees, supervisors, and remaining staff

✅ Scripts for human resources and executives

✅ Slides, talking points, org charts, and logistics for department meetings and all-hands meeting

✅ Follow-up employee engagement plan that limited voluntary turnover to just 4% over next 6 months

The following email was sent to all employees from the CEO once notifications were made. Some details have been redacted:

Dear Team,

We have made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our global professional staff. As a result, 14 of our teammates were notified this morning that their full-time positions have been eliminated. Your department leads will hold meetings for remaining staff tomorrow and we will come together for an all-staff meeting later this week.

We are a tight-knit team at #### and I know there is an incredible impact on our departing teammates and their families. I am grateful to all of them for their many contributions to #### over the years and for all they have done for our members and their professional staff teammates. We spoke with each of them individually and their well-being remains a priority. Today was their last day at ####, but we will continue supporting them with severance, healthcare coverage, and access to job placement support services.

In the interest of Trust and Respect, I want to share how we arrived at this decision. As I told you during last month’s all-hands meeting, the Global Board asked us to reevaluate this year’s budget by looking at all operations and teams to identify opportunities for savings without eliminating programs for members — specifically, a 6.5% reduction to the balanced budget submitted in June. We found significant ways to reduce spending including eliminating the virtual ###### programming, not holding an in-person staff retreat, reducing some areas of technology investment, scaling back meeting expenses, among others. The Board also asked the Executive Team to look at workforce allocation.

It is never an easy decision to eliminate positions, and we did not take this lightly. Rather than making changes throughout the year and prolonging uncertainty, we carefully reviewed our priorities and made these staff reductions now to allow all of us to focus on achieving our individual and organizational goals.

Additionally, to best represent our whole organization and provide strong and accountable leadership for all of you, the E-Team has made changes to its structure that I will share later this week. We are confident that we have made the right decisions to lead #### forward.

I want to assure you that we took great care in examining every aspect of ####’s global staff and we do not have plans for additional workforce reductions at this time. Your expertise, commitment, and ability to adapt are vital as we position ourselves to meet future challenges and opportunities. Each of you is a valuable member of this community.

You will receive meeting invites to department meetings with your VPs today and tomorrow. We will regroup as a staff on Thursday at 9 am ET and I will hold additional open hours at 9 pm ET. I truly hope I will see all of you then. In the meantime, I am here to support all of you and appreciate your continued dedication to ####, our members and each other. Please reach out directly to me, to your supervisor, or to our People & Culture team with any questions.

####### ########
CEO

Mobolaji Sokunbi Named EO’s VP for Business Development

Mobolaji Sokunbi is joining the Entrepreneurs’ Organization as our new Vice President for Business Development, starting 21 April 2025. He will report to Dave Parker, CEO, and will lead strategic partnerships efforts.

“I am excited to welcome Mobolaji to EO,” said Parker. “He has a great background in global business development and a deep understanding of startups and small businesses. Our goal is to reach US$5 million in annual partnership revenue by 2027 as part of the Strategic Direction, and I know he is ready to meet this challenge.”

Sokunbi spent nearly 15 years with Dell Technologies, where he launched key initiatives including the Small Business Associations, Dell for Startups, and the Dell Expert Network programs; efforts that led to the creation of the Alternative Routes to Market (ARM) business. Most recently, he served as Director for Small Business ARM across the US, Canada, and Brazil, helping scale the business from US$22M to $800M and contributing to 90% of global ARM revenue. Sokunbi’s connection to EO began during his time as Dell’s Head of Strategic Partnerships and Centre for Entrepreneurship from 2017 to 2020, and he presented to the EO Board at the 2020 EO South Asia Presidents’ Meeting in Chennai, India.

“I am honored to join EO, a community that understands entrepreneurship as a shared journey,” said Sokunbi. “From building small business and founder-focused programs like Dell for Startups to working alongside changemakers across continents, I have learned that growth happens when we uplift one another. As the saying reminds us ‘Rain does not fall on one roof alone.’  I am excited to grow with, learn from, and contribute to this extraordinary global network.”

Outside of work, Sokunbi is an author (co-authored The Nigerian Time Machine Activity Book) and is the co-founder of The 234 Project Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to empowering Nigerian youths via career workshops, STEM programs, internet access, and providing hygiene dignity kits for school-age girls.

Sokunbi holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin and a BA from the University of Texas and resides in Austin, Texas with his family.

All-staff email introducing new SVP for Technology

Team,

I’m excited to share that David Stephenson is joining EO as our Senior Vice President for Technology, leading our Technology team. His first day is Monday 6 February 2023.

David has spent his entire career working with membership organizations, implementing solutions to improve member and staff experience. David is a natural leader who brings a thoughtful, strategic and innovative approach to technology-enabled change.

I want to thank the members of our Technology team for embodying a ‘together we grow’ mindset and continuing to execute on key projects during the past few months of transition. Thank you, also, to Ryan Noll, VP People and Culture, and his team for leading the search for this senior leadership role.

A note from David:

Thank you to Deborah and the executive team for this exciting opportunity to join EO. I look forward to learning about our members to ensure the alignment of our technology with the products and services they value in support of EO's vision, mission, and goals. From my conversations with Deborah and the executive team, I understand that there is so much excellent and impactful work in progress. I look forward to getting to know the Technology team and collaborating with colleagues across the organization.

Most recently, David served as Vice President for Information Technology & Organizational Performance at the APTA, with more than 100,000 members. There, he managed a multi-million-dollar budget and oversaw significant projects, including website redevelopment, implementing a cloud-based CRM, and security upgrades.

Before joining APTA, David spent 20 years in roles of increasing responsibility for Worldwide ERC, a global talent management trade association with more than 10,000 members. He collaborated with colleagues and board members worldwide to bring a change in mindset from IT as a support service to an integral piece of the business's success. He led many automation, security, and data-driven improvements, including migrating to a virtual cloud environment and implementing new customer service and membership platforms.

David earned his bachelor’s degree in geography from Auburn University. He is an American Society of Association Executives member and serves on its Technology Council.

David lives in Maryland with his partner and stepdaughter. When he is not sharpening his technology skills through continuing education, he enjoys travel and the outdoors, especially hiking and camping.

Please join me in welcoming David to EO!

Together we grow,

Deborah
CEO