A warm welcome to @ClintHayashi, Global Head of Communications at Aion Bank – New Advisor to NoTurningBack2020. Clint has worked for Disney Consumer Products, Yahoo! And Expedia during his career both in the US and London.
Here Clint shares with us how he came to choose Communications over a career in Law. In his words ‘ Many people of colour or lower socio-economic backgrounds simply do not know the opportunities that exist in the marketing and communications industries. Aspiring to be a doctor or lawyer are more tangible because we see these professions in television characters or in our daily lives. Shining a light on the opportunities within the marketing and communications sectors is a big first step. The second step is all about access. How does someone without a network or any contacts access opportunities within marketing and comms? This is an industry all about relationships, so we need help give access to our relationships to a more diverse group.’
Clint will be working alongside @rebekhabillingsley to create our third Ambassador Outreach Group for NoTurningBack2020.
My earliest career goals were typical of the son of an Asian family, who was also the first to attend university. I wanted to become a lawyer. Although this career wasn’t explicitly pushed by my family, I understood this was an acceptable path for me. I took a job at a law firm after university whilst I studied for the law school entrance exam. It was whilst working here and seeing the day-to-day of lawyer life that I realised this was not the profession for me. I knew nothing about the communications industry at the time, but became interested in it after speaking to a friend who worked at a public relations agency. The job sounded like it captured a lot of my interests – including writing – so I decided to give it a try.
My career has traversed the media and technology sectors over the past 20 years. I started working in interactive entertainment, first at a PR agency, then in-house at Ubisoft, a video game publisher. I went on to work for brands like Disney, Yahoo!, NBCUniversal, Expedia and ViacomCBS – both in the US and in the UK. After working for big multinational companies for the majority of my career, I wanted to use my expertise to help build and establish a new business. I currently Head Global Communications for a fintech start-up called Aion Bank.
My philosophy is no matter how many years of experience you have, you are always learning. I have the good fortune of my career being pretty broad and have touched most areas of communications – corporate, consumer, product, technology, internal, etc. The one skill that is a constant across all these disciplines is storytelling. I pride myself on being able to understand why a brand matters to different audiences and craft stories in an impactful way.
I previously worked with an inspirational leader on her executive communications programme. Her platform was mentorship, particularly with women in business. She had great mentors across her career and wanted to play it forward to up-and-coming executives. Her philosophy was to make sure everyone on the team felt their voice was heard and valued, and she knew there was power in ‘when you see it, you believe it’. When younger generations see people like them in leadership positions, they believe they can reach that level in their careers. Helping to tell this leader’s story was inspiring because it ignited my own desire to tell my career journey in order to help people in minority communities.
Awareness and access are key. Many people of colour or lower socio-economic backgrounds simply do not know the opportunities that exist in the marketing and communications industries. Aspiring to be a doctor or lawyer are more tangible because we see these professions in television characters or in our daily lives. Shining a light on the opportunities within the marketing and communications sectors is a big first step. The second step is all about access. How does someone without a network or any contacts access opportunities within marketing and comms? This is an industry all about relationships, so we need to help give access to our relationships to a more diverse group.
I recently worked for a company where Diversity and Inclusion was part of its DNA. Their employee resource groups filled both HR and strategic business objectives. These groups were often consulted when decisions were made in consumer products and programming in order to make sure the cultural tone and nuances were accurate. I know very few companies operate like this, but why? It comes down to representation. When you have a diverse employee community across all levels of the company, this leads to diversity becoming a strategic asset of the company. This is the mission of NoTurningBack 2020, and I am all in to do my part.