My Friends Are Better Than Yours Featuring Adrianne C. Smith

Adrianne C. Smith is SVP, Senior Partner, and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at FleishmanHillard (FH), a leading global marketing and communications agency. At FH, she guides its mission to become the most inclusive agency in the world. Before joining FleishmanHillard, Adrianne was named the first Global Director of Inclusion and Diversity at WPP.  Adrianne is also the Founder and Visionary of the Can: Diversity Collective, a non-profit organization created to provide people of color and marginalized communities access to global thought leadership conferences in advertising, marketing, creativity, and communications. In 2018, she launched the first iteration of the Diversity Collective, the Cannes Can: Diversity Collective (CC:DC), which provides rising stars in advertising, marketing, creativity and communications industries the opportunity to attend and participate in the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In 2019, she made history by creating the first stand-alone diversity, equity and inclusion beach in the festival’s 66 years of existence and named it Inkwell Beach – Cannes after the historic beach on Martha’s Vineyard. In January 2024, she launched the Can: Diversity Collective’s – Inkwell Beach – Davos during the World Economic Forum, making history again by building the first activation committed to conversations on the global impact of diversity, equity and inclusion. As a sought-after thought leader, Adrianne has been a speaker on global stages including Davos – World Women Foundation during the World Economic Forum, Dubai for the Dubai Lynx Festival, Iceland – Reykjavik Global Women’s Forum, Morocco – Marrakesh Literary Salon and Cannes – Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Adrianne is on the board of the Harlem Business Alliance and the advisory board of the Reykjavik Global Forum. She has been recognized as an Outstanding Mentor by the Diversity Action Alliance, a Game Changer in the “Quantum Leap” category for the She Runs It Game Changers Awards, and received the 2023 ADCOLOR DEI Executive of the Year. She was also inducted into Morehouse College’s 38th Martin Luther King Jr. College of Ministers & Laity, named as one of PocStock’s Future of Black America Top 50, DEI Champion for the 2024 Women in Media and Marketing Awards benefiting Breastcancer.org and received the 2024 ColorComm Circle Award.