Wade Davi

Former NFL Player Wade Davis is a thought leader, public speaker, and writer on gender, race, and orientation equality. Wade is currently the Vice President of Inclusion Strategy for Product at Netflix and has consulted with Google, MTV/VH1, 21st Century Fox, AppNexus and others to co-create transformative solutions to build inclusive corporate cultures. Additionally, Wade has coached senior leaders to adapt and flex their leadership styles to meet the needs and develop their employee population.

In solidarity with the #MeToo movement, Time’s Up Now and Wade are currently collaborating to remove the institutional barriers that women face in the workplace. His work to engage, educate, and help men understand what actions to take toward gender equality has included partnerships with the Ms. Foundation and Ebony Magazine where he launched the #BlackMenAndFeminism campaign and with the Ms. Foundation’s #MyFeminismIs campaign. Wade gave his first TEDx Talk at the University of Florida entitled: The Mask of Masculinity, and works to engage men through a variety of vehicles to become more self-reflective and divest in patriarchal practices.

In addition to his work as a Global Champion for Innovation for UN Women, Wade is a founding member of VICE’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board with Gloria Steinem, Roberta Kaplan and others and is on the boards of the Ms. Foundation for Women and Sparks and Honey. Most recently, Wade was named a Global Champion for Girl Up, a program of the United Nations Foundation. Understanding the importance of engaging men around gender equity and equality, Wade built a ‘Men’s Gender Equality Development’ leadership program that launched with the United Nations in 2018.

A former national surrogate for President Obama, Wade has been an Adjunct Professor at both the NYU School of Professional Studies Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media, and Business and the Rutgers University School of Public Affairs and Administration. He continues to lecture on the intersections of race, sexuality, gender, and sports at universities nationally and internationally.

Wade Davis was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and graduated from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and received an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from Northeastern University for his leadership and ongoing efforts to eradicate homophobia and sexism in athletics. He is currently at work on his first book.