- Today, the Valuable 500 announce 28 adopters of its leadership up mentoring 
programme for people with disabilities from members spanning 4 continents

- Generation Valuable participants will be paired with a mentor at C-Suite 
level within their organisation and will explore each of the Valuable 500's 
transformation pillars

- Early adopters include Telefonica, AXA and ATOS

Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). 
This changed the world as we know it by activating legislation which provided 
people with disabilities access to buildings, equitable education and made it 
illegal to discriminate against a qualified person for employment.

Whilst it is important to recognise and celebrate the strides we have made 
towards disability inclusion – there is much more progress to be made. The way 
society views disability needs to evolve, dispelling the myth that disability 
is something to pity or fear. By changing this and recognising how disabled 
people enrich communities, society will be empowered to ensure disabled people 
are included.

'Generation Valuable' 
[https://www.thevaluable500.com/press-release/the-valuable-500-launch-generation
-valuable-on-world-economic-forum-stage] will serve as an unique leadership 
opportunity for people with disabilities to build the future of the corporate 
C-Suite, driving disability inclusion through systematic change and 
revolutionising the boardrooms of tomorrow. Building a community of disabled 
talent who importantly share their experiences upward to inform the C-suite of 
today about how to make businesses more inclusive.

Caroline Casey, Founder, the Valuable 500, commented:

"This initiative proves that there is an array of disabled talent within 
businesses, and that they are more than capable of occupying positions of power 
and leadership. The Valuable 500 is striving to radically change the awful 
results of research conducted by Tortoise Media 
[https://www.thevaluable500.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Tortoise-Disability-1
00-Report-Valuable500-accessible.pdf] that found that 'no FTSE company had a 
senior leader or above who identified as having a disability.'"

The complete list of early adopters includes:

- Alstom
- ATOS
- AXA Group
- Boston Consulting Group
- Centrica
- Channel 4
- Clifford Chance
- Coles Group
- Deloitte 
- Enel
- EY
- Fidelity International
- HSBC
- ISS/AS
- ITV
- L’Oréal
- Macquarie Group
- Mahindra
- Nielsen 
- MSD 
- Omnicom Group 
- Ottobloc
- P&G
- Reach PLC
- Roche
- Springer Nature
- TD Bank Group 
- Telefonica

José María Álvarez-Pallete, Chairman & CEO, Telefónica, commented:

"For Telefónica, contributing to providing opportunities for people with 
disabilities is not only an ethical imperative, but also a question of talent 
and business. In the current context, no company can afford to do without any 
valuable professional. Diversity allows us to better understand the real needs 
of customers, to connect with society, and to be more innovative and 
productive. Together, we need to empower people with disabilities to humanise 
technology and break down barriers with digitalisation. Thank you to The 
Valuable 500 for promoting such an innovative initiative as 'Generation 
Valuable.'"

Find out more about the Valuable 500 here [https://www.thevaluable500.com/].

Source: The Valuable 500