The Why? Romero upholds Fuse’s mission of empowering and amplifying young multicultural voices by providing advertisers with increased opportunities to reach this underserved audience. As a Latino, DEI is personal to Romero and he shepherds key thought leadership studies with the goal of better understanding how media trends influence the self-perception of Fuse’s audience. These studies help to inform overall strategy at Fuse and enable Romero to provide unique business intelligence to partners.
He Says… “Engaging in thoughtful and honest race in the workplace conversations has elements of discovery, education, empathy, learning and practicality that lead to a healthier work environment.”
What community support initiative has your company championed that you’re most proud of? I’m most proud of the general mission of Fuse, the first brand fully dedicated to authentically representing, celebrating, empowering, and unifying multi-identity youth around the world. We are culture forward, passion advocates, and all-in with the community of unity. While it’s an ambitious goal, we have embarked on this mission leveraging in-depth audience insights and research, showcasing award winning documentaries and films, developing celebrated programming like Made From Scratch, partnering with diverse talent such as Weezy, Karrueche Tran, Peder Cho and Jerome LaMaar, and developing long last social impact initiatives like Future History, Buy Small, Be Change and All-In to name a few.
Advice for productive conversation about race in the workplace: An example of productive communication includes authentic and genuine conversations with employees on issues that matter most to them. Engaging in thoughtful and honest “race in the workplace conversations” has elements of discovery, education, empathy, learning, and practicality that lead to a healthier work environment. Our internal approach at FUSE attempts to address the on-going need to educate and bring elevated awareness towards all races, ethnicities, and cultures. Our experience has shown that a lack of both often lead to misunderstandings, stereotyping, misappropriations, unconscious bias, ignorance, and lack of empathy. It’s an ambitious goal to address such a challenging topic at the workforce but I’m extremely proud that our employees have a willingness to engage in such important conversations.
