I, Jennifer Zachary, personally commit to the following:
Personal Commitment
- As a leader of my organization, I pledge to use my voice, influence, and platform to advocate for—and demonstrate action to drive—greater diversity, equity, and inclusion across Merck, our community, and within the legal profession.
- I will continue to sponsor and mentor diverse talent across Merck, including in our legal department, and across our profession, especially with our outside law firms.
- I will exemplify transparency by sharing data with my broader team to ensure that everyone has strong visibility and a deep understanding of our goals.
- I commit to communicating consistently the progress made against our goals, as well as the areas that require attention, to drive meaningful progress and ensure management accountability.
Organizational Commitment
- We will foster an inclusive and collaborative culture where, regardless of personal background, everyone feels a sense of belonging and is valued, empowered, and treated fairly. And we will solicit feedback on our efforts to ensure our continuous improvement.
- We will strengthen our focus on mentorship, through which all key talent have leaders as mentors who are not in their direct line of responsibility and can provide guidance to help the mentee advance their skills and network of strategic contacts across Merck.
- We will advance DE&I in the legal profession through our initiatives with our network firms to increase the number of diverse attorneys staffed on Merck legal matters, increase our usage of minority-owned firms, and provide diverse law students with internship opportunities at Merck.
- We will continue to identify opportunities for our organization to be involved in pro bono legal efforts that positively affect diverse communities and advance social justice, while also actively supporting diverse bar associations, civic organizations, and the LCLD.
- We will continue to require each leader to include DE&I commitments as part of their annual goals and cascade those goals throughout their organizations, while at the same time understanding and addressing the drivers of low diversity representation.