DIVERSITY POLICY

As part of our mission to promote excellence, the IMW is committed to fostering a culture of diversity, inclusion, and ongoing transformation. We believe diversity makes organisations more successful and communities more fulfilling. By actively cultivating a diverse community of professionals, we benefit from a richer mix of ideas, perspectives, and life experiences that expands our thinking and our possibilities. We value and respect diversity of all kinds – within our staff, our membership, our students, and the global wine industry.

ACTION PLAN

In issuing our diversity policy, the Institute of Masters of Wine will demonstrate its commitment by undertaking the following activities:

• Develop and implement an e-learning ‘introduction to diversity’ programme, completion of which will be a mandatory requirement for the executive office, Council, honorary officers and everyone involved in education.
• Engage an external facilitator to assist with face-to-face training and discussions around the subtleties surrounding all aspects of diversity.
• Undertake an audit of the current membership and the student body to more fully understand how people self-identify, in order to create a base line from which we can monitor how the IMW is performing in its commitment to becoming a far more inclusive organisation. This request – and the following list is not exhaustive – will include questions on ethnicity, gender identity, country of origin and preferred language.
• Update the admissions process to capture data on how individuals self-identify.
• Prepare a master list of BIPOC speakers with expertise across all sectors of the global wine industry, in order to ensure that the IMW includes a diverse range of speakers at all events, online webinars, etc.
• Ensure that mentors assigned to BIPOC students have the skill set to create an environment in which everyone feels welcomed and supported within the study programme.
• Diversity within the wine industry will be a topic of debate at the IMW symposium to be held in Wiesbaden, Germany in 2023.
• Explore opportunities for BIPOC scholarships to address the economic challenges of participating on the IMW study programme.
• Explore ‘outreach’ opportunities with education bodies that often act as a feeder into the IMW.
• Review the IMW study syllabus to ensure this includes issues surrounding corporate social responsibility and diversity within the industry.

We recognise that as an organisation, we are now embarked upon a process of transformation to ensure that the composition of our membership more truly reflects the diversity of the industry in which we operate.

Updated: 16 December 2020