Hypewomen

Inspiring Inclusion with Adrianne C. Smith,Founder Cannes Can: Diversity Collective

Sarona Wolter

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Adrianne C. Smith is the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at FleishmanHillard, one of the world’s leading communications and marketing agencies. She helps drive the organization’s mission to become the most inclusive agency in the world. 

Adrianne is also the Founder and Visionary of the Can: Diversity Collective, a nonprofit created to give access and exposure to young adults of color and underrepresented communities to global thought leadership conferences in communications, advertising, marketing, creativity, economics, innovation and technology.

In 2018, she launched a program where rising stars in the advertising and creative industry got the opportunity to attend and participate in the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

In 2019, Adrianne launched the first-ever DE&I activation at Cannes called “Inkwell Beach,” named as a tribute to the historic beach in Martha’s Vineyard, which was a place of solace for Black people during segregation. 

By 2023, what started six years ago – as a small group of young professionals has grown into a cohort of more than two dozen young people from five continents. In 2023, Adrianne was named ADCOLOR’s DEI Executive of the Year.

She joins on Hypewomen Podcast to talk about her mission and how she inspires inclusion. 


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