Recruiting From Diverse Backgrounds—Philip Parkinson of Klick

What kinds of changes have you seen in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, and how are you engaging with those efforts?

In my 18 years of tax, I have seen women and ethnically diverse individuals becoming more of a fixture of the profession. However, the most important is recruiting staff from a variety of educational disciplines ranging from arts to sciences to address the increasingly complex world of tax.

The world of tax accepted me as an individual who has a disability, but we have folks within the profession who need to change with the times and accept people for their authentic selves. We as a profession have much more work to do on this front. Having managed diverse teams made up of varying genders and ethnicities, I try to treat everyone with the utmost respect they deserve, as I would like to be treated the same by them.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.

Author Information

Philip Parkinson is director of tax and head of global taxation at Klick, a multinational marketing agency and commercialization partner for life sciences in Toronto. He is a member of the Tax Executives Institute’s Toronto chapter’s board of directors.