The Why: Bakare is a founding co-chair of Charter’s Spectrum Multicultural Business Resource Group, which he uses to extend the company’s commitment to promoting an inclusive and empowering culture. He’s also a co-chair of the University of California, Riverside’s Beyond Brilliant fundraising initiative, which seeks to raise $50 million toward broadening education access and fostering a culturally diverse campus community. And he founded the Tilga Fund for the Arts—which supports young contemporary African artists.
He Says… “One area that needs continuous intentional focus is disability. By really focusing on this at Spectrum, we’ve been able to enhance our products and services from an accessibility perspective.”
What is an overlooked aspect of DEI? One area that needs continuous intentional focus is disability. By really focusing on this at Spectrum, we’ve been able to enhance our products and services from an accessibility perspective. We have a Disability Business Resource Group (BRG); members share their personal experiences and provide us feedback on ways to improve our internal tools, and make our apps, products and services even more accessible.
How has advocating for DEI benefited your company or department? As an operations leader, we hired Charter’s first deaf field technician who uses American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate in my region last year. This experience has enabled us to expand the pool of candidates to work in the field as technicians, and opened the door to what’s possible with the right support.
Place I would love to retire to: Portugal—I went to check it out last year and truly fell in love.
What movie or show is must-watch for celebrating diversity and why? “Bridgerton.” The show places people of color in historically white characters’ roles, and still manages to maintain the integrity of the historical period and storyline.