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Our Mission
To improve hiring, retention, career advancement, professional development and social impact for underserved communities.
Black Excellence Summit
In 2020, Upwork’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging and Black Initiative Network (BIN) hosted the company’s first annual Black Excellence Summit (BES). BES is a one-day professional development retreat for Upwork employees who identify as Black and/or African American. Hosted in the city of Chicago, this summit focused on three key themes: authenticity, growth, and resilience.
What We Do
Events
We're always getting the Upwork community involved with the Black Initiative Network through fun events celebrating Black history, from our Juneteenth celebration to Black History Month. We also have social events for the group to build a shared community and safe space so everyone feels supported.
Professional Development
Our group is committed to helping our members with their professional development, so we attend conferences like AfroTech, organize networking events, and partner with Black ERGs from other organizations to enable our members to grow their circles.
Community Outreach
We want to empower not only our employees, but people outside the Upwork community, so we do outreach, speaking at high schools, mentoring students, and helping them with their interviewing skills.
Our Employee Leaders
Justin Imo
Branding and Communications Lead
Mbaye Niane
Membership and Engagement Lead
Sara George
Events Lead
Tasha Copeland
Secretary
Our Executive Sponsors
Marc Hosein
Senior Director, Business Development
Eric Gilpin
Sr. Vice President, Sales
Upwork's company mission is to create economic opportunities so people have better lives. Our Black Initiative Network's mission is to improve hiring, retention, career advancement, professional development and social impact for one of our underserved communities. Achieving BIN’s mission will help us achieve Upwork’s mission, enabling us to better serve our customers while growing our business and helping our community.
We strive to be one of the first companies to truly model the Future of Work, which must include diversity, inclusion, and belonging. In short, Upwork’s Black Initiative Network will enable the Future of Work and we need your help!