Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick on creating real, lasting diversity in corporate America

• Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick, president of Howard University, also serves on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Humana.
• With only six Black CEOs at Fortune 500 companies, he said the issue starts with lack of diverse talent pipeline development, "but everywhere along the system there's a problem."
• Howard has created student career development deals with Google and Amazon Studios to go beyond what he called the "transactional" nature of many diversity recruiting efforts, and Howard recently became the first HBCU to be granted a Department of Defense research center affiliation.

Wayne A.I. Frederick, the President of Howard University, at a press conference February 29, 2016, in the university's Founder's Library.

The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick is the 17th president of Howard University, one of 107 historically Black colleges and universities in the U.S., serving some 11,000 students across its undergraduate, graduate, and professional student programs. Frederick is the distinguished Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery at the Howard University College of Medicine. He is also a practicing cancer surgeon at Howard University Hospital, where he continues to see patients and perform surgeries. 

Frederick — who currently serves on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Humana — recently spoke with CNBC ahead of the Equity and Opportunity Forum on April 4. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

CNBC: As of this interview, there are only 6 Black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, which is a record. And even below the C-level, the majority of executive corporate America continues to be overwhelmingly white and male. Do you see this as a pipeline issue? A recruitment issue? Something more systemic?

Frederick: I see the dearth of Black CEOs as an ecosystem issue. I think every aspect of the ecosystem needs to be improved — the pipeline, the opportunities once you get into the job arena, and then the management. So, the boards need to be more reflective of the people that we want to see coming from diverse talent in the C-suite. And the C-suite, even the executive leadership, we focus a lot on the Black CEOs, but the reality is the people who could elevate to those positions, there is a dearth of them. So that opportunity to elevate isn't there and I think that's problematic. And obviously, it starts with the pipeline, but everywhere along the system there's a problem.

CNBC: How important is corporate recruiting at Howard? Can you speak to how on-campus recruiting has traditionally looked, and whether that has changed during your tenure?

Frederick: In terms of our campus recruiting, it has always attracted a wide variety of companies looking for diverse talent. That can be very transactional. And it can also afford companies an opportunity to check the box, as it were, you know, so that when they give a report, they could say, "Yeah, we went to Howard, we went to these other HBCUs. And we didn't really find talent," because it's a one-off, very transactional environment.

What has changed under my leadership is we've tried to make that more of a relationship-type experience, where we set up a corporate relations office, we've been engaging with companies to talk about what our students are exposed to, what they're looking for, who they are. And that has resulted in better partnerships.

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So, everything from Howard West's relationship with Google, where we send students out there, so that you can't help but develop a relationship as they get to know the faculty, staff and students. It's been wonderful. And so the hiring there has been better. We have our entertainment relationship, which involves Amazon Studios. That's very similar. We have a finance relationship, which involves three companies, Apollo, Ares, Oaktree, which gives some exposure to private equity, to venture capital financing, etc. And so those relationships have taken away, I think, the transactional nature of the recruiting, has enhanced the recruiting prospects, and also resulted, I think, in more diverse recruitment at those companies, and a much better experience for students as well.

CNBC: The Department of Defense recently announced its selection of Howard University as the 15th university, and first HBCU, to lead a University Affiliated Research Center. How does a selection like this affect your ability to attract top candidates who might otherwise choose a school like MIT or Stanford?

Frederick: What that has done for us, it's positioned us very uniquely in the ecosystem. This is high-level research. It's focused on AI and algorithms, machine learning. It's in an area of technology that will put us at the forefront. The activity and the expertise that the Air Force is hoping will develop and come out of the research activity is cutting-edge. So, it is definitely going to be a significant recruitment tool. Prior to this, we already saw a significant interest in our application process, year over year, with some 60 to 70% increase in applications. So all in all, I think it bodes very well, for our recruitment, I think students will be energized and excited by the fact that they would be in an environment where they can work on cutting-edge technology. 

CNBC: There has been increased attention, both positive and negative, paid to HBCUs in the wake of the events of 2020. What have been some of the challenges and what are some of the benefits of that attention?

Frederick: Yeah, it's an interesting question. First, I will speak more to you about the ecosystem. It has certainly brought attention to disparities in general and the fact that historically black colleges and universities have been at the forefront of closing down those disparities and those gaps. And that has resulted in an attraction of philanthropy, without a doubt. And so I would say, clearly, there's been an overall benefit.

Unfortunately, if you look at giving to social justice causes beginning in 2019, what you would have seen is a significant spike after the murder of George Floyd. And then in late '21, a slow decrease that has now settled in early '23. So yeah there was an initial raising of everybody's consciousness around HCBUs but what I think has since happened, to be quite honest with you, is two things:

One is that it has not been even across the entire sector [of HBCUs]. That does concern me. And the second concern I have is that it actually has softened significantly from where it was. And so when people are talking about this renaissance and resurgence, we also have to be cognizant that we also went through a period where we had significant government support. Howard has certainly done well, but I will also try to remind people that prior to the murder of George Floyd, Howard had raised four of its five largest gifts within that year just prior to George Floyd's murder so we had built infrastructure, and were heading in a certain direction, even prior to that. 

CNBC: What are the challenges that you have had to overcome in leading a flagship HBCU like Howard. What does it mean to you for Howard to be considered almost representative of the Black education experience in the United States? 

Frederick: Yeah, you know, it's a good question. It's a challenge. And I think one that we try to manage respectfully. First, to begin with, I think, for the over 100 HBCUs, they're a heterogeneous group. And unfortunately, a lot the conversation about the sector tries to group us all as one and I think that harms the sector ultimately, because you have a wide variety of institutions that are serving different purposes and missions.

You have a very compact institution like Howard, with a hospital, a radio station and TV station, a law school, a dental school. I mean, it's very unusual in higher-ed period, not just in the HBCU world. And when you try to compare that to a smaller HBCU, I think that that's not the right thing. So, what we've tried to do is to be excellent at what we do. We recognize that we are a leader in many ways. We've graduated more Black physicians than anybody else, we send more African Americans to medical school, we sent more African Americans to STEM PhDs than MIT, Stanford, Harvard and Yale combined over the past, I think, two decades. So, we recognize that we have a unique place. 

The second thing that I've tried to do is to be more supportive of the other HBCUs, to be collaborative. Every summer, we bring HBCU students to Howard for a pre-clinical MCAT type prep, where they get clinical exposure as well as MCAT prep. We do it for LSAT. We do it for people interested in humanities PhDs, and that has worked well. Students want to go to dental school, we do it. So that support shows that we're interested in trying to support those institutions and those students in seeing Howard as a destination site as well. We've had a couple of schools send us med students for the first time ever in their history, and in our history. And we think that's fantastic if we can spread the wealth across the ecosystem.  

But I think we have to walk in carefully because Howard can get so much attention that the other schools can get hurt in my opinion, because people see one doing very well and they assume all are doing as well. And I'm very, very sensitive about that because I think all are very important. And they all deserve everybody's attention.