Jarvis Sam

he/him

Founder & CEO of Rainbow Disruption, Former Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer for Nike

Jarvis Sam is the CEO and Founder of the multi-services DEI firm Rainbow Disruption and the former Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer at Nike Inc.

The firm has partnered with hundreds of different companies on a variety of different service offerings aimed at building and establishing world class DEI strategies and programs with service offerings outlined at www.rainbowdisruption.com.

He was recently named Forbes 30 Under 30 in Sports class of 2021 as well as Portland Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. In his previous role, he oversaw a team of people focused on driving diverse representation, inclusive leader and social justice

education, professional development and the ecosystem of promoting and creating a culture of belonging inside and outside of Nike. Prior to being named CDEIO at Nike, Jarvis held various roles focused on acquiring new talent capabilities for the company

and driving large programs, partnerships and initiatives aimed at impacting representation and accelerating the flow of Nike’s diverse talent pipelines. Jarvis collaborated closely with key stakeholders and partner organizations, internally and

externally to facilitate and measure effective workplace diversity and inclusion models. Additionally, he led Nike’s candidate experience and talent attraction/ employer branding efforts – driving best in class approaches and strategies to

amplify the company’s employment voice and obsess the candidate.

Jarvis frequently liaised with the sports marketing function and product teams to execute on key initiatives with signature Nike athletes like Serena Williams and League partners like the WNBA and NFL. Prior to Nike, Sam worked as the first Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Snap, Inc., (Snapchat) where he was accountable for building the company’s first ever D&I strategy, establishing the first five employee resource groups, and rolling out the initial iteration of the global unconscious bias awareness and implicit association training all whilst driving key technology recruiting approaches to

scale the company 6x through IPO. Before that, Sam worked at Google as a Diversity Program Manager and led part of the

diversity recruitment practice.

Jarvis began his career as a strategy and operations consultant with Deloitte Consulting in Houston, primarily focused on clients in the oil & gas industry. Jarvis is a graduate of Rice University where he studied History, Public Policy, and Sport Management with emphasis in race and gender rhetoric. Jarvis received his MBA from Brown University and IE School of Business.

He is an adjunct faculty member/ Professor of the Practice at Brown University and University of California- Berkeley and has lectured at numerous universities and institutions of higher learning around the world. Sam has given more than 500

public speeches, fireside chats, keynotes and panels and is considered an expert in the space. Jarvis’s highly anticipated first book DEI C.R.E.D.E.N.T.I.A.L. will be released in October 2023 and has already received

marketing accolades from Nasdaq amongst other media and industry outlets.

In his spare time, Jarvis does musical theater, most recently acting as Jimmy Early in a production of Dreamgirls. He loves film, sports, karaoke, and can be frequently seen doing a rendition of Tina Turner’s greatest hits all around the world.