Issam Kaisse, Nielsen: Filling a need for Arab employees by starting a new affinity group
Manage episode 338040932 series 2912884
His first shock in college was being asked to fill out his ethnicity on a form. He didn’t fit into any of the categories. He also discovered that many Americans knew very little about Morocco.
When he started at Nielsen seven years ago, he joined several affinity groups, which Nielsen calls “business resource groups." Unfortunately, none of them was the right fit.
He approached Nielsen’s DEI team and proposed a new group for employees of Arab descent called Marhaba (Arabic for “hello”).
At the first meeting, Issam talked about Ramadan and how Muslim people celebrate this month-long period. He was careful to note that just because you’re Arab doesn’t necessarily mean you’re Muslim. Issam explained that at least 400 million people of Arab descent live in 22 countries.
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