SUPPORTING STATEMENT: Dear fellow shareholders,

Former RBI CEO José Cil said that “having diversity and different perspectives at the table” is an important part of “driving outsized performance long-term” and “makes sense from a business standpoint.”

Indeed, diversity is highly material and can impact the delivery of durable financial returns.

“From an investor’s perspective,” reports Fidelity International Ltd., “diversity and inclusion should be a core part of how companies create value,” calling it “critical to the longterm success of businesses.”

Similarly, RBC calls diversity “an engine for innovation and economic prosperity” while Capital Group says “diversity of thought and perspectives” can “deliver better results.”

Vanguard Group also says diversity “can lead to better results for shareholders” and asks companies to “disclose their oversight of diversity-related strategies and risks.”

But while RBI professes a strong commitment to diversity, when it comes to senior leadership, the company falls short, raising significant concerns about the Board’s oversight of this highly impactful issue.

Though RBI acknowledges it doesn’t have “enough” diverse leaders, says it wants “more” diversity in senior leadership, and claims it’s “measuring progress,” unlike other companies, it hasn’t defined measurable targets to progress toward.

(For example, McDonald’s aims to reach 35% leaders from underrepresented groups in the U.S. and 45% female leadership globally by 2025, and gender parity in global leadership by 2030.)

What RBI does have is a goal, established in mid-2020, to ensure that half of final round job candidates are diverse. But since it exceeded that goal the same year (reaching 70%) one may wonder if the goal represented an earnest attempt to make progress or was more a codification of current figures at the time of adoption.

Plus, as RBI’s 2021 ESG report says, the goal is for any corporate role—which means it may not even impact senior leadership.

And regardless, since it’s for candidates, it effectively amounts only to an effort to increase RBI’s diversity potential. But potential diversity is very different than actual diversity.

In fact, José Cil emphasized this very distinction while writing about the company’s view of diversity. “The fact is that outcomes matter more than efforts,” he proclaimed.

So, let’s examine outcomes.

Senior leadership data compiled from RBI’s 2020 — 2022 impact reports show that, among those reporting, female leadership rose by just a single percentage point, Black leadership stagnated (at a low 4%), Asian leadership dropped two percentage points, and Hispanic leadership dropped five.

Looking ahead, especially considering the impact diversity can have on long-term performance, we think meaningful disclosures and commitments are now required.

Filed by the Accountability Standards Board.