After moving up in human resources at companies from McDonnell Douglas to A.G. Edwards, Sharon Harvey Davis landed a job at HBE Corp. where, in 1999, she “went from zero to 60 in terms of diversity.” One of its subsidiaries, Adam’s Mark Hotel in Daytona, Fla., suddenly was at the epicenter of a racial-discrimination lawsuit involving the NAACP and the U.S. Justice Department.
“And because I was probably the only person in HR who could even spell diversity, I was asked to lead the effort,” says Harvey Davis, who was promoted to vice president of corporate affairs and served as a spokesperson throughout the ordeal that ended with a nearly $2-million settlement and compliance order.
“It was a great opportunity to learn just about everything there is to learn in diversity,” Harvey Davis says, noting that the NAACP eventually ranked HBE the No. 2 hotel when she left the company in 2002 to adopt her two-year-old daughter, Cori.
