HomeBridge’s Brian White on diversity at a practical level

This week, HousingWire’s Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler interviews HomeBridge Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Brian “Woody” White. In this episode, White discusses what increasing diversity within the housing finance industry looks like on a practical level.

Here is a small preview of the interview with White, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Sarah Wheeler: A lot of large companies now have a diversity inclusion officer as many have made it a priority. But say you’re a smaller company, a lender, or an independent mortgage banker, what are some steps you can take? From a high level, what’s the low-hanging fruit?

 Brian “Woody” White: Well, the first thing is, when you start talking about diversity, inclusion and equity, that’s a personal conversation. Even if you’re talking at a high level, it’s a very personal conversation for people receiving the message. In order to have those kinds of conversations, everybody has to be comfortable. Especially the executives, right? They have to be willing to say, ‘let’s have a meeting over here and talk about this and talk about that.’ So, for me, every company has to start that conversation at the top and see how it goes. While you can examine your recruiting, try to get into more of the details, and berate recruiters if they are not doing the right thing, if you realize that most of your recruiters don’t care about diversity or what you’re talking about, you’re going to need the support. So, you have to start with management at some level.

The Housing News podcast explores the most important topics happening in mortgage, real estate, and fintech. Each week a new mortgage or real estate executive joins the show to add perspective to the top stories crossing HousingWire’s news desk. Hosted by Sarah Wheeler and produced by Alcynna Lloyd.