Voya Financial Achieves Mansfield Rule: Legal Department Edition 2.0 Certification

Achievement recognizes Voya’s commitment to diversity of leadership in its legal department and outside counsel firms

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA) announced today that it has achieved Mansfield Rule: Legal Department Edition (MRLD) 2.0 Certification. The certification is a recognition of Voya’s purposeful and ongoing efforts to expand the slate of diverse lawyers considered for internal leadership roles or outside counsel representation.

“Voya’s long-standing commitment to welcoming different perspectives at every level of our organization is grounded in the belief that inclusion leads to better outcomes for our customers, employees and communities,” said My Chi To, chief legal officer, Voya Financial. “We will continue to work to enhance our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts through recruiting, training and mentoring, and look to our outside counsel firms to do the same.”

The Mansfield Rule aims to increase and sustain diversity in leadership within legal departments by considering at least 50% historically underrepresented lawyers — women lawyers, LGBTQ+ lawyers, lawyers with disabilities and/or underrepresented racial and/or ethnic lawyers — for senior and top attorney job openings, discretionary high-visibility opportunities, and with outside counsel representation. Legal departments also must create and publish job descriptions and advancement criteria for leadership roles.

"As a purpose-driven company, our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts span all levels and areas of our company, strengthening our culture and employee well-being, which is ultimately reflected in how we serve our customers and our communities,” said Angela Harrell, chief diversity and corporate impact officer. “The tenets of the Mansfield Rule and our legal department’s intentional focus on the diversity of its leadership and outside counsel reinforce our commitment to integrate DEI across our enterprise.”

The MRLD is a rigorous, two-year certification program that aims to boost and sustain diversity in legal department leadership.¹ To achieve MRLD 2.0 Certification, Voya’s legal department collaborated with Diversity Lab over a 24-month certification period with built-in measurement, transparency and accountability mechanisms. Legal departments also must share lessons learned through monthly knowledge sharing forums, to ensure that all departments are working as a community to move the needle on DEI in the legal profession, and they must meet check-in, data-collection and reporting milestones.

“We are incredibly proud to have worked alongside these Mansfield 2.0 Certified legal departments over the past two years," said Valerie Portillo, legal department director, Diversity Lab. “Attaining certification is hard work, and we're thrilled to shine a spotlight on this community of legal departments and dedicated in-house leaders as an example of what collective action can achieve."

Learn more about the Mansfield Rule and see the full list of MRLD 2.0 Certified legal departments in this open letter from the 2020-2022 Mansfield Legal Department Leaders.

About Voya Financial^®

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA) is a leading health, wealth and investment company that provides products, solutions and technologies that enable a better financial future for its clients, customers and society. Serving the needs of 14.3 million individual, workplace and institutional clients, Voya has approximately 6,000 employees and had $711 billion in total assets under management and administration as of September 30, 2022. Certified as a “Great Place to Work” by the Great Place to Work^® Institute, Voya is purpose-driven and equally committed to conducting business in a way that is socially, environmentally, economically and ethically responsible. Voya has earned recognition as: one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies^® by the Ethisphere Institute; a member of the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index; and a “Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion” on the Disability Equality Index. For more information, visit voya.com. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @Voya.

1. The Mansfield Rule: Legal Department Edition (MRLD) 2.0 Certification period ran from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022. Voya did not pay to be considered for the certification.

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