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Samantha Renovato leverages both sides of the brain when it comes to Ingredion’s global push for representation, belonging, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) investment for a company that has continually been operating well ahead of the curve. Ingredion—the maker of sweeteners, starches, nutritional ingredients, and biomaterials—employs roughly 12,000 people across the world, and its customers operate in more than 120 countries across 60 different sectors including food, beverage, beauty, healthcare, paper, and pharmaceuticals.
One of the company’s core values is “Everyone Belongs,” a value that Renovato has been instrumental in supporting and bringing to life. As Ingredion’s director of global DEI, Renovato has the heart of an advocate and the mind of a statistician, key attributes that are crucial for anyone hoping to make DEI efforts count.
“What gets measured is what gets done,” Renovato says about her approach to her role, which she took on in August 2021. The director spent eight years at Nielsen, a company well-known for its innovation in metrics and data. Seven promotions later, Renovato knew she had the mind for analytics, but her heart was in DEI. Having moved to the US at nine years old, Renovato understood the power of representation and advocacy for all underrepresented groups.
“What gets measured is what gets done.”
Samantha Renovato
“When I looked at job descriptions externally, I knew that I needed formal experience leading a business resource group [BRG] program,” she says. She would find that opportunity at Ferrara, a role only cut short by the opportunity to come to Ingredion.
Her current role at Ingredion is a culmination of all the skills Renovato has spent her career collecting and perfecting: analytics, storytelling, program management, and the understanding of finding efficiencies in all those efforts.
But the role didn’t come without some hesitation for joining the manufacturing industry.
“I wasn’t sure if this was the industry for me,” the director says frankly. “I think I had a perception that this was going to be a lot of men, and white men at that. But I knew I had to challenge my own bias and so I decided to move forward in the process. I had a great mentor tell me that there comes a point in your career when you’re looking at a new role and it’s just as much about the manager as it is the role. And my manager really inspired me. I knew I’d have the support and autonomy to make things happen, and at the same time, I was learning about all the amazing things Ingredion does as a company.”
It’s only been two years, but Ingredion has made good on its promise of investing in DEI on a global scale. In 2022, Ingredion was able to increase its percentage of women in management to 36 percent, as well as those for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). The company is on track to achieve global gender parity at the manager level and above by 2030.
The gender parity goal was already in place when Renovato arrived, but she helped add the company’s BIPOC commitment, which also includes tracking and metrics.
Renovato has also retooled Ingredion’s BRG structure by placing a member of the executive leadership team as a sponsor for the company’s nine BRGs. Additionally, each BRG also has a VP- or director-level sponsor.
In partnership with employee engagement software company Teleskope, Renovato has been able to establish global consistency across BRGs and reduce the amount of administrative work for BRG leaders across the organization.
“BRG work is done in addition to a person’s day job,” she explains. “The leaders shouldn’t have to worry about distribution lists, updating those lists, adding members, or promoting your BRG to new employees. Our people can just jump on the website, sign up, and the process is quick and simple.”
When Renovato spoke with Hispanic Executive in August 2023, Ingredion had just wrapped up its First Global Inclusion Week, an effort to celebrate diversity, foster inclusion, and build a better-connected culture across Ingredion’s global employees. The daily focus areas and development seminars offered were created by sourcing feedback from employees.
“We were able to identify five different topics that our employees wanted to learn more about and focus on,” Renovato explains. “We had global discussions, and some topics were activated regionally. That flexibility was important so different regions could focus on issues that are more relevant and impact them specifically.”
The realities of the manufacturing space mean not everyone can step away from their role. So in addition to webinars that could be viewed later, Renovato stressed the importance of local initiatives, such as themed lunches and gratitude walls as a means of expressing appreciation and togetherness.
Renovato is also taking a more direct approach to building that inclusive culture. She currently has two formal mentees, one located in Mexico and the other in Singapore. It’s part of a broader mentor program that’s currently in its pilot phase and driven by the director’s efforts.
Ingredion continues to make progress on its extensive DEI efforts, and Renovato says the recent affirmative action ruling from the Supreme Court makes those efforts more challenging. But Ingredion, in word and deed, is steadfastly committed to building an organization that is truly welcoming to all and where everyone feels they belong.
Exceptional organizations are led by a purpose. At Deloitte, our purpose is to make an impact that matters by creating trust and confidence in a more equitable society. In the US, we are focusing our efforts to advance sustainability, equity, and trust that come to life through core commitments and support our Shared Values.
