How did Derica W. Rice become one of Eli Lilly & Co.’s highest-ranking Black executives? What resulted when Ameren’s Sharon Harvey Davis used successful crisis management to expand her knowledge of diversity? Read more about how these two leaders overcame the odds to advance their careers. 

Derica W. Rice, Eli Lilly and Co.

Eli Lilly & Co. is one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies

How did Derica W. Rice become one of Eli Lilly and Co.’s highest-ranking Black executives? The pharmaceutical giant’s executive vice president of global services and chief financial officer attributes his drive for success and innovation to his modest upbringing in Decatur, Ala.

The first in his family to attend college, Rice strives to make the most of every opportunity—and this has stayed with him throughout his 20-year tenure at Lilly, where he has risen from international treasury associate to his current expanded role that includes “redesigning the back-office operations … improving efficiencies and, most important, increasing the speed with which we execute new medicines,” he says. “One of the big challenges pharmaceutical companies face today is lack of innovation.”

Click here to read more of Derica W. Rice’s profile.

Sharon Harvey Davis, Ameren

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.

Click here to read more of Sharon Harvey Davis’s profile.