Sean Choi on Building a DEI Culture That Is More Than Checking Boxes

Sean Choi joined FirstBank as a 26 year old intern in a diversity internship program, and 11 years later he leads the bank's diversity, equity and inclusion work. In this conversation with Greg Aden he traces his path as the son of Korean immigrants and the first in his family to finish high school and college, and he explains how the Aurora market he worked in grew loan production from roughly 20 million to nearly 200 million with one of the most diverse management teams in the company.

Sean makes the case that DEI is everyone's responsibility, not one director's job, and that at its core it is a set of leadership skills: helping people feel like they belong, admitting you do not have every answer, and asking individuals what they actually prefer instead of assuming what a group wants. He and Greg also talk about vulnerability as courage, the diversity you can see versus what sits below the waterline, and why building committees, board involvement and a strategic plan came before the director role ever made sense.

Guest: Sean Choi, Senior Vice President and Director of DEI, FirstBank Colorado. https://linkedin.com/in/sean-choi-colorado

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