Meet Amie
Amie Santos, Founder and Principal of AKS Advisors, sits down with Bespoke Agency to discuss how her personal and professional experiences shaped her journey.
Santos helmed a global powerhouse law firm's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts from 2015 to 2023.
Now she’s pivoting, launching AKS Advisors to harness her expertise and thought leadership to help firms, corporations and organizations demystify and deepen their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts—with authenticity and growing by facing comfortable truths as focal points.
As Santos puts it, “This is transformational work,” and the future, and an increasingly diverse world, demands engagement.
What’s the origin of your work in the DEI space?
Amie Santos: When I was studying as an undergrad, diversity, equity, and inclusion was not a career field; it was not even on my radar when considering career options. I majored in political science and business management and thought I wanted to go into politics or law, so I interned for the House of Representatives. That was one of my first experiences with not feeling a sense of inclusion and grappling with many of the topics that come up in this work. After interning for the Committee on Ways and Means, I decided upon graduating to work for a law firm for a year or two before going to law school.
While working in multiple law firms doing training, recruiting, and professional development, I began to get involved with women's initiatives and racial, sexual orientation, and diversity groups. This was still in the early years of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). You had some senior-level buy-in, but not many professionals in the industry doing the work as a full-time job. Around that time was the recession, it was 2008. I began paying attention to the individuals being asked to leave firms. It became very apparent there was a disparity among racial and gender representation. Since then, there's been a lot of research on the impact of diverse populations in law firms throughout layoffs.
At that point, I decided to focus my career on addressing diversity issues.
There were not any Master's or graduate programs focused solely on diversity at that time. The closest program I could find was a leadership and human resources graduate program at the University of Virginia. I embarked on that while working, and then went to work for another firm to learn under a beloved mentor that had built their own diversity program from the ground up. I've never looked back. It's a passion for me and, thankfully, has been an area that's now on the radar in corporate America.
How has this decision shaped your career path?
Amie Santos: I've had the opportunity to work in very different professional cultures and navigate the differences those cultures bring through a DEI lens, including different decision-making styles, different client bases, and different approaches to managing a global business.
One of the first firms I worked for was a huge international firm headquartered in New York. It had a top-down driven management style with many institutional clients in the banking and finance sector.
The second firm I worked for was based out of Texas and had a very heavy client base in oil and gas; there was a different level of formality and a different way of approaching issues based on clients' sensitivities in different sectors.
The third firm that I worked for had strong roots in California. They did a lot of work with emerging companies and life sciences, which lends itself to a more casual environment, with collaboration around decision-making processes.
I learned that even within firms, cultures drastically differ among offices and departments.
I've also had the opportunity to work heavily on integrating international offices into a United States platform and ensuring people at new offices in different regions feel included, fully utilized, and able to reach their full potential.
Despite the different cultures across firms, many of the core issues that organizations and clients face are the same. It comes down to succession planning, motivating employees, responding to major market or political changes, and engaging with your workforce meaningfully. At the end of the day, that impacts your bottom line.
How does your family history fit into this narrative?
Amie Santos: Lived experiences are a piece we often don't talk about enough when doing this work or in the business world. My family history shaped my approach to the work and my interest in the work.
I was born in central Texas and spent time as a child in Southern Texas, near the border of Mexico. My father came over to the United States as a child without legal status after his mother died, and he and my mother met in high school and married soon afterward. That marriage lasted for a few years. I don't remember living with my father. But I did spend time visiting him over summers, and he would visit my sister and me in Hampton Roads once we moved with our mother to live with my maternal grandparents.
My grandfather was a Colonel in the Army. In Virginia, we lived what some might call a very traditional lifestyle; my grandmother was a homemaker and volunteered in the community; my grandfather was in the military, and we spent a lot of time on post. It gave me the opportunity to interact with people from many different walks of life. I did not fully appreciate the value that the military community brings in terms of diversity until I was much older. My grandparents were very conservative, and I remember having some passionate discussions around the dinner table about politics, but always in a respectful manner, which equipped me to work across the table to drive change within organizations.
Amie (far right) with her mother, grandparents and sister
What makes your approach to this work unique, and what are your non-negotiable rules when partnering with businesses?
Amie Santos: Diversity, equity, and inclusion work and creating socially impactful business practices is transformational work. This is not work that you can achieve with one training or one motivational speaker. This is not work that can be done in a silo with one individual or team. This work extends to every facet of a business and should be treated as such. It's work that requires collaboration. And it's very difficult work that requires uncomfortable conversations and diligence to continue the work when it gets hard. This work is an investment in building a stronger organization, investing in talent and driving future business.
I respectfully decline to conduct a one-off training with no plan to engage further. I am not interested in convincing people that diversity is important. Diversity is inevitable in our country. Our world is more diverse and will continue to be more diverse. And that's something that smart decision makers that I want to work with need to understand and be on board with. We must approach this work compassionately and understand that we may not always get it right.
Diversity professionals often come into uncharted territory. Organizations have to put their money where their mouth is; this is a long-term investment. Many different tactics need to be utilized. We need to dig in and look at compensation structure, succession planning, recruitment, policies, client engagement, and business development. This work touches every facet of the business. This is a large-scale change requiring prioritizing immediate and longer-term focus areas.
How has DEI work evolved over the years?
Amie Santos: Initially, diversity was affirmative action focused and centered on paying fines and rectifying past misdeeds, often with training and a finger-wagging approach. The work has transformed over time to be multidisciplinary, beyond just training, to touching every facet of an organization and being more of a collaborative process. We saw a lot of diversity trainers or people in the diversity industry that were racially diverse themselves. That then transitioned into the diversity work and laid the groundwork for the next generation: practitioners that have studied and designed their careers with a background centered on organizational change and development and experience leading organizations through change as full-time DEI professionals.
There are many diversity consultants out there. Some are skilled at doing trainings and presentations and speaking on specific topics. Then others are really good at getting under the hood, examining what's going on with the core business strategies and structures, and working in alignment to embed equity into every avenue of the business. I view myself as the latter, as somebody that collaboratively works on longer-term projects and works with my network to refer suggestions for trainers, coaches, and motivational speakers as one component of the work.
What are the opportunities of doing this work authentically and the pitfalls of falling short of that?
Amie Santos: The biggest opportunity is a more engaged workforce. A more engaged workforce means less turnover, higher profits, and more engaged clients. The biggest disadvantage for companies not doing this work is that they will completely miss the mark of what the future generations — consumers and future talent — are seeking and the direction of potential regulations.
We'll see a shift; companies and firms will double down on their commitment to diversity and socially impactful business practices. And as a result, they will see the payoff and dividends in the future, both from what their industry and company look like internally, but also with the clients and the financial success.
Companies and organizations that do the opposite may be okay for the very short term. Still, in terms of growth strategy and continuing to attract top talent and the best clients, they will falter and not progress.
How can the decision to build (or not build) a DEI-oriented culture impact client conversations?
Amie Santos: Clients, particularly clients that are selling products, submitting a report to a board, or having to publicly disclose figures should be critically focused on their reputation in the industry on these topics. Then it's how you present yourself in the initial conversations in the pitch process. What is the team makeup you're bringing to the pitches or the business development meetings? Can everybody speak on these issues, or is there one tokenized person presenting? It then translates into who's doing the work and the quality of the work for the client or the organization hiring you.
How have you navigated the experience of transitioning from working in-house on these issues to coming in as an advisor?
Amie Santos: It’s been eye-opening how generous people have been with their time; there is a deep interest and passion in the business world for guidance around equity topics. I've been lucky to work hand in hand with many individuals I’ve developed relationships with over the years to brainstorm and design approaches that come at this more creatively than when I was working in-house, with more structures in place. I'm excited about the future, I'm excited to work with more firms with different cultures and different stakeholders. I'm looking forward to running my advisory firm authentically and meaningfully, where we can have deep conversations to better the business outcomes for all my clients.
Founding my own advisory firm is empowering because it gives me more freedom to live my values and spend more time teaching my son how to create change together as a society. I also have a supportive husband who practices law in a large firm and is an ally. I’ve seen firsthand the impact of what white male allies can bring to this work.
What’s the benefit of having someone come from the outside to drive change within your company or organization?
Amie Santos: The benefit of hiring somebody as a fractional or in an outsourced Chief Diversity Officer role is that many organizations have limited resources and time. It’s difficult to implement many effective strategies with so many other priorities. A fractional or external diversity consultant can bring expertise without breaking the bank; I can bring in high-level experience at a fraction of the cost of bringing on a full-time executive. I can bring in strategic focus because it's not about putting together a bunch of random tactics. It's tactics that collaborate to a joint overall strategy that helps you achieve your goals.
I am flexible, I can start where the organization's largest challenges are and then pivot over time. And the most important benefit of bringing in somebody externally is that person is empowered to speak the hard truths and not worry about the long-term damage of navigating internal politics. All too often, the individuals charged with speaking the hard truths on diversity and socially impactful business practices are already not as well represented in the world. There's been a lot of research about the societal tax of speaking up and often about diversity topics. As an outside consultant, I can speak more clearly and freely with the decision-makers and leadership.
How do you stay informed about DEI topics and apply your learning to your life more generally?
Amie Santos: One of the reasons that I jumped into running my own firm is the opportunity to prioritize continued learning and education in a rapidly changing field. I read a ton; many papers are being published, often focused on social innovation and changes in the diversity industry. It's very important for me to stay up to date with ongoing legal battles and the rulings that are coming daily. I spend a lot of time talking to other people in the industry and in my network, ranging from people at varying levels within law firm environments and corporations, to students, all the way up to members of management teams. That provides access to a range of unique perspectives and varying points of view that inform my practice.
I also take a lot from observing my community. How is my rapidly gentrifying neighborhood dealing with diversity and socio-economic issues? And what are some ways to get involved? How are local and national governments evolving on these topics? How is equity and diversity work showing up at my son's school? What are my decisions as a consumer with a diversity lens? How is diversity showing up in the media that we consume? One of the benefits of doing this work on my own full-time is the ability to bring that diversity lens into everything that I do and then translate that back into the work that I provide for my clients.
Are you currently reading anything that’s been especially enlightening?
Amie Santos: One book I'm reading is titled Coaching for Equity. The book is based on conversations that change practice. The book discusses how we can use transformational coaching frameworks and tools to create equitable schools. It's interesting because many of the themes and lessons are transferable to corporate America; there are similar challenges within our education system. And it's also very relevant when you're thinking about the pipeline of future talent.
I also like to read through the Stanford Social Innovation Review. There are many articles there about system leadership, entrepreneurship, and the science behind what makes people care and what makes people get involved and engaged. Lessons like that from the social sciences are critical for the work that we're doing in the corporate space. Finally, I’ve been particularly pleased with the DEI coverage of the Harvard Business Review over the past few years.