Rob Smith
Vice President, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Amentum
“Valuing Our People” is at the heart of Amentum’s core values and a quality that attracted Dr. Rob Smith to the company. Appointed vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion in November 2021, Smith hit the ground running, partnering with a leadership team energized to continually improve the Amentum employee experience. He believes raising awareness is vital to Amentum’s DE&I strategy.
“It starts by taking time to listen and learn from our diverse talent,” Smith said. “Over the past several months, I’ve enjoyed visiting Amentum locations around the country, meeting with our people, and gaining new perspectives.”
During his short time with the company, Smith developed and launched DE&I Dialogues, a series of discussions focused on topics such as psychological safety, unconscious bias and media-fed stereotypes. He also emphasized the importance of analytics in developing a comprehensive DE&I program.
Amentum is committed to ensuring that all employees come to the company ready to do their best work in an environment that supports them mentally, physically, personally and professionally, said Patricia Munchel, chief people officer at Amentum.
“By embracing our differences and welcoming new ideas, we ignite innovation and a team culture dedicated to solving our customers’ most complex challenges,” she said. “I’m excited to have Rob’s partnership as we elevate our DE&I program within our Culture and Talent Management organization.”
Why Watch
Amentum’s overarching talent strategy will be pivotal in developing a continuously engaging employee experience. Smith sees Amentum’s DE&I strategy as threefold, with a focus on creating a community at Amentum. He wants to ensure employees know there is a place for them at the company through employee resource groups and by fostering a culture where everybody owns DE&I.
He looks forward to leading a DE&I council to help ensure individual employee needs across the company can be addressed with various advocates. With new employee resource groups and additional demographic information, Smith plans on capturing quantitative and qualitative data to create a detailed picture of Amentum’s workforce.