The RBC is a consortium of CEOs of large businesses in the St. Louis region who unite to collaborate around high-impact business, civic, and philanthropic initiatives for the betterment of the region. Since our inception in 2000, the RBC has been committed to increasing the diversity of our regional talent pool and ensuring the business community is an inclusive place.
To that end, the RBC is focused on recruiting and developing globally diverse talent within the St. Louis marketplace. We partner with a variety of local organizations to achieve this goal including InSight St. Louis, the Minority Business Council, the St. Louis American, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Asian American Chamber of Commerce, the Bosnian Chamber of Commerce, the St. Louis Business Diversity Initiative, and Civic Progress.
We established the Young Professionals Network (YPN) in 2008 to attract, retain, develop, and engage young, diverse professionals in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The YPN helps young professionals develop leadership abilities, build social and business networks, and give back to the community.
The Regional Business Council recently surveyed our 2400 Young Professionals Network members. We know how talented and driven our members are, so there weren’t many surprises in the survey data for us. Even so, we suspect that many people in the St. Louis area don’t know how amazing our pool of talent is and we feel that it is our duty to get the word out about these individuals who embody our ideals: inclusive, professional, educated, welcoming and connected.
Inclusive
The YPN membership is a truly inclusive organization. Ethnic diversity is important to us and we’re proud to report that our membership is 51percent African American, 37 percent white, 7 percent Hispanic, 7 percent Asian and 4 percent Multiracial.
YPN members also don’t care what high school you went to — our membership boasts 36 percent born and raised St. Louisans along with 35 percent St. Louis transplants. Another 19 percent moved away but came back to St. Louis. This mixture of perspectives about our region and its potential is one of the most exciting things this group has to offer.
Professional
The YPN membership engages employees from Fortune 100 companies, mid-sized businesses, international businesses, and even entrepreneurs running their own businesses. The entire corporate ladder is represented with 23 percent managers, 9 percent directors, 6 percent vice presidents, 2 percent partners and 2 percent presidents/CEOs. “Job opportunities” as well as “leadership opportunities in my company” were rated as reasons number two and four for why YPNs choose to stay in St. Louis.
Educated
YPN members are incredibly well educated. An overwhelming majority (93 percent) has a bachelor’s degree or higher education. Forty-seven percent have gone on to pursue a graduate degree and 9 percent have completed post-graduate studies.
Welcoming and connected
The number one reason individuals joined the YPN was to network, a reason more than a quarter of participants listed. This is a group of individuals that continually pushes themselves to leave their comfort zones to forge new relationships.
Seventy-eight percent of our network members report being active volunteers in the community. We know St. Louis is an incredibly philanthropic region and donating time is a perfect way to expand your network beyond your day job, something young professionals value both personally and professionally.
We are really proud of our members and are always looking for quality young professionals to join our ranks. Do you believe that you would be a good fit? You can sign up for membership on our website at www.stlrbc.org.
