Protocol reporter Amber Burton interviewed Beric Alleyne, the global head of Diversity and Inclusion at eBay, to talk about Alleyne’s knowledge and experience handling diversity, equity and inclusion throughout his professional career in the financial services and tech industries.

Alleyne explains how he was introduced to his DEI role at eBay and the impact that his former senior position at Goldman Sachs–where he noticed a lot of his colleagues were different than him–had on his transformational endeavors. He provides valuable insight into the diversification processes at eBay and the tech industry as a whole, and compares and contrasts these processes to those in the finance industry, saying that the root cause for DEI initiatives in these industries is the same.

According to Alleyne, the goal–what’s put in place to uproot the need for DEI–is to get to a place where microaggressions in the workplace can be addressed by finding, hiring, training and enabling more diverse groups of people in these industries.

He thinks that businesses that have been around for a longer period of time are further along in these processes and that eBay, although it has DEI initiatives in place, still requires ongoing DEI leadership.

The need for DEI is prevalent and Alleyne says that this kind of work is fluid and will continue to evolve. He insists that change will come through personal conversations with one another and, to conclude his interview, said he encourages companies and their employees to enable DEI from inside the organization.

To read the full interview with Alleyne, click here.