Spit and a handshake: Chapter 6 of Surviving DEI at Adyen N.V.
The sixth chapter of Surviving DEI at Adyen N.V. Marie-Anne Leuty (she/her) shares the experience of being allegedly invited into the fintech to do DEI work and The Study Group’s current legal fight to allegedly be recognised and paid for that culturally sensitive and important work.
Hi everyone,
My name’s Marie-Anne and you’re reading chapter 6 of 23 of an educational case study detailing The Study Group’s alleged experience doing specialist DEI work for fintech giant, Adyen N.V.
When I started to write this blog on 27 November 2023, I never envisaged it becoming a 30,000 (and counting) word research paper.
It just came pouring out.
A month later on 26 December 2023, we published this on The Quick + The Brave, our independent, BIPOC founded media platform, evoking the Dutch Whistleblower Protection Act of 18 February 2023.
It’s also available in full here on Medium.
In this chapter, at the start of a chemistry test phase with our alleged new Program Partner, the Vice President of Creative at Adyen N.V. supposedly agreed to an interview so that we could understand Adyen N.V.’s alleged intentions for supporting The Study Group’s design and communication program.
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The full 30,000 word educational case study was first published on The Quick + The Brave. Visit the blog to read and see full image galleries.
Learn more about and support The Study Group Foundation.
Pre-sale for ‘mini maatje’ ‘Advocates and Allies’ issue soon available via The Quick + The Brave.
By publishing this blog, The Study Group evokes the Dutch Whistleblower Protection Act (Wet bescherming klokkenluiders) of 18 February 2023.
The full act from the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations is available in Dutch and English.
Want to help amplify our story to other media? The Act protects all stakeholders who share it (clause 1a. Duty of confidentiality and data protection).
Chapter 6: Spit and a handshake
We were excited to develop the program.
There were some things we had to establish at the start.
I felt a huge sense of responsibility bringing my partner and creatives from the community into the corporate space and wanted to make an informed decision before getting into bed with a faceless corporation.
As a majority BIPOC women and non-binary team, at The Study Group we’re aware that we need to tread carefully as we navigate our careers.
Our contact allegedly agreed to an interview so we could be clear on Adyen N.V.’s goals and their supposed intentions behind supporting the program.
He shared his personal journey as a designer.
Self-taught and from a working class background, he’d put in hard work and got results, allegedly starting as a freelancer for Adyen N.V. for a couple of years before becoming the company’s first full-time designer.
He was allegedly frustrated that creatives from historically excluded backgrounds didn’t get the same access to opportunities to grow.
In the recorded interview, he acknowledged that Adyen N.V. had work to do to improve diversity and allegedly HR had been unable to reach professionals from BIPOC backgrounds. They were using traditional methods of recruitment (LinkedIn, career days at universities….) but we’re typically not in those spaces to begin with.
Our contact took the initiative to look further afield and found us.
Talking about representation, he explained:
“Where are the people who really want this job but aren’t represented in our team? That’s the reason why I think when we called, it was at first a little bit about the Editor in Chief role.
“Help me to find these people because I know they’re not per se on LinkedIn. They probably think ‘for God’s sake, why would I or can I even work at Adyen N.V. because I am who I am?”
“… I always said where is the hard working person [from the Bijlmer] with three jobs but doesn’t know that Adyen N.V. exists, doesn’t have the mental space [to know that] Adyen N.V. exists. Those people we met last time [through] The Study Group, because you brought them here, are super enthusiastic people who are very talented and eager to learn.
“One is a sound engineer who wants to work in the music industry and the music industry doesn’t see a woman of her colour, a woman, young, inexperienced. [They say] “let’s ignore her, she’s not relevant”. I would really embrace those people in my team. Try it, explore what we sound like, explore what we do then we’ll figure out how to enhance your skills in audio design. Those are the people I would really like to help be part of our team.
“The fact that I called you, you spoke about The Study Group, The Quick + The Brave… You had a challenge, we can facilitate in that challenge. I want to do something that brings diversity and inclusivity from outside of our organisation into Adyen N.V. and also outside of Adyen N.V. so that we actually help you and people see that instead of like ‘now I could just hire you two’ then you’re part of Adyen N.V.. It’s like ‘oh you’re a part of Adyen’ but then nobody sees that.
“So, I want to make the extension a little bit outside of our organisation, not through LinkedIn, not through sponsorships like ‘OK, let’s give these people money, look at us being cool with our name and we’ve paid money’. No, let’s do things together, let’s figure out how we can be meaningful for us and also give money.”
– Vice President of Creative at Adyen N.V.
A Dutchman’s word holds sway in business — verbal contracts are legally binding in the Netherlands.
We’d been brought in through what seemed to be genuine initiative grounded in common sense.
We were supposedly invited to begin an adventure.
And so we began a chemistry test phase with our collaborator.
By publishing this blog, The Study Group evokes the Dutch Whistleblower Protection Act (Wet bescherming klokkenluiders) of 18 February 2023.
The full act from the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations is available in Dutch and English.
Want to help amplify our story to other media? The Act protects all stakeholders who share it (clause 1a. Duty of confidentiality and data protection).
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