As a young Black man growing up in Winnipeg Rich Thomas remembers his parents saying to him “you are living in a society where you are not the majority, and as a young Black person, you are going to have to work twice as hard for half as much”. Those words had an enormous impact on his early years. And when we spoke on this episode of humans, on Rights Rich talked about how he took the words of his loving parents to heart.
Rich Thomas shares his personal story of running his own business, his challenges and his success and his realization that regardless of how successful his business was, he was never acknowledged or recognized as the manager….simply because of the colour of his skin. That is when Rich recognized that he needed to establish himself as a champion for diversity. He believed that if he could chart a path as a successful champion of diversity, he could chart a course and mentor other marginalized people to becoming leaders.
Today Rich Thomas is a leadership coach. Rich is the Founder and Global Chair of Jet in Colour, an employee resource group focussed on marginalized ethnic communities currently spanning Canada, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.
As an avid collector of shoes, the large majority Nike shoes, Rich is a classic example of “just do it”.