Hossein Nowbar

I, Hossein Nowbar , personally commit to the following pledge, to advance community and culture at Microsoft, empower our people, expand and build on the diversity of our talent pool, and impact our industry.

(1) Advance community & culture at Microsoft

• I will continue to learn about the diverse communities within our Corporate, External and Legal Affairs department (CELA), including by engaging in regular inclusive dialogue sessions with members of those communities and actively participating in employee network events.
• I will work collectively with my leadership team to advance a culture of diversity and inclusion in our team and hold myself and my leaders accountable for fulfilling our D&I core priorities.

(2) Empower our people

• I will amplify work of our diversity and inclusion champs, including by expanding our focus on diversity and inclusion work outside of the U.S.

(3) Expand and build on the diversity of our talent pool

• I will actively engage with our current participants in – and alumni of – the LCLD Fellows and Pathfinder programs.
• I will focus on attracting talent with a range of perspectives and experiences, and to provide access and development opportunities for employees to move through their careers including those aspiring to manager and senior-level positions.

(4) Impact our industry

• I will hold my team responsible  for contributing to the success of our Law Firm Diversity Program in the US and UK and our participation in the Inclusion Initiative sponsored by the National Association for Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF).
• I will continue to proactively engage with external associations and initiatives that support communities of diverse legal professionals.

Microsoft’s Corporate External and Legal Affairs (CELA) department will continue to:

(1) Advance community and culture

• As part of the manager core priority, we will support managers in creating an inclusive culture and ensuring that all employees are accountable for including and executing on a D&I core priority.
• We will continue to ensure that CELA employees meet our diversity and inclusion training requirements, and that we actively promote allyship as an organizational priority.

(2) Empower our people

• We will continue to support and empower our CELA D&I Leadership team and our D&I champs network, including by having our senior leaders participate in – and sponsor active participation in – D&I activities.
• As a senior leadership team, we will continue to learn and engage with our diverse communities via active sponsorship of our CELA employee networks, regular engagement with our CELA D&I Leadership team, and inclusive dialogues with our employee network groups.

(3) Expand and build on our diverse talent pool

• As part of Microsoft, we will help fulfill our commitment to double the number of Black and African American and Hispanic and Latinx people managers, senior individual contributors, and senior leaders in the core US workforce by 2025, as outlined in our Racial Equity Initiative and published in our 2022 Diversity and Inclusion Report.
• We will continue to focus on attracting talent with a range of perspectives and experiences, and to provide access and development opportunities for employees to move through their careers including those aspiring to manager and senior-level positions.

(4) Impact our industry

• We will continue to partner with our law firms to increase diverse representation within law firm leadership and on our matters through our Law Firm Diversity Program in the US and UK.
• We will actively support women and minority-owned firms through our participation in the Inclusion Initiative sponsored by NAMWOLF
• We will continue to support our attorneys’ participation in various mentoring programs that support diverse law students.
• We will engage broadly with organizations focused on advancing the diversity of the legal profession and actively support innovative programs to do the same.