The 2023 Rising Stars of the Profession: Dave Wade

Dave Wade is a Senior Manager in Deloitte Consulting LLP's Government & Public Services Strategy and Analytics practice. Dave has over fourteen years of experience in advanced operational analysis supporting clients within the Defense and National Security sector. Dave uses his technical skillsets across mission analytics, applied statistics, workforce analysis, workforce planning, and project management to drive mission outcomes for the client organizations he supports.

At Deloitte, Dave serves at the intersection of Digital Transformation and Data Enablement where he has supported clients navigate challenges such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement negotiations under the Obama Administration, the implementation of biometric technology for US Customs at all US Air Ports, and support to the Navy's Chief Digital Transformation Officer and Chief AI Officer developing transformative applications with regards to Contested Logistics, Capability Readiness, and Infrastructure Modernization. Additionally, Dave has a passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and served as the lead senior manager to stand up the firm's Black Action Council and led the development of Deloitte's first ever DEI Transparency Report released in winter of 2021.

Dave previously served in the Air Force and is currently an Air Force Reservist serving in advance mission analytics and statistics for the Headquarters Air Force's Directorate for Analysis, Assessments, and Lessons Learned.

What would you say has been the biggest factor in your success so far?

From being a gay black man in professional services to serving in the Air Force during the Don't Ask Don't Tell Era, I have learned empathy that I embody in my personal and professional life to be my greatest success factor. During my time in the military, I became a victim and survivor of sexual assault by a superior and was silenced due to an outdated policy that threatened my career and livelihood. This experience gave me perspective on abuse of power in leadership and something I vowed to always be cognizant of as I grew professionally.

I take the power that comes with leadership seriously. In my professional life, I strive to create safe spaces for the people with whom I work. I prioritize understanding my teams' strengths and what motivates them so I can help them realize their full potential. I can do this because empathy to me also means fostering a feeling of reciprocal trust among team members. It matters to me that my team not only sees me as someone that gives direction but also as a person they can trust because I also do the hard work with them. My goal is to make this feeling of mutual trust, respect, and safety pervade all my teams so that people can feel safe and secure that we want them to bring the best version of themselves to work.

What do you enjoy most about your career in the consulting industry?

I support Deloitte's Government and Public Services (GPS) practice within our Consulting business line. What I appreciate about the consulting industry, specifically servicing federal government clients, is the ability to serve the people of our country by sharing my lived experiences to shape major policies related to national security, trade and commerce spaces. Often, when I walk into a client meeting, I am the only person that looks like me in the room. The ability to have not only a seat, but also a voice at the table, allows me to bring perspectives that many of my interlocutors lack and raise issues that affect people of color, women and the LGBTQ+ community. This has helped my clients over the years recognize analytical blind spots, question their innate biases, and strive to do better. And as organizations whose purpose is to benefit the American public, it matters that they have an inclusive, holistic perspective of what the American public is, to include people that look like me.

What is your proudest achievement to date?

During the social unrest during the summer of 2020, I was called to stand up Deloitte's Black Action Council (BAC), the first ever of its kind. BAC's purpose was to help correct the orthodoxies of systemic racist policies within our firm rooted in the historical oppression of marginalized communities. The BAC had an immediate impact. It led the self-ID campaign, where over 95% of the firm's personnel self-identified themselves by their communities, and later revamped the firm's demographic mappings to be more inclusive of nonbinary individuals and those with multiracial identities, among other traits. We also released the firm's fist-ever outward statement condemning racial hate speech and the first-ever Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) transparency report, which described our demographic metrics and presented tangible goals to improve racial equity and representation across the firm.

This work makes me proud because I know it had an impact beyond the firm. The key challenge the BAC posed to other firms was to hold themselves accountable to better and create a more equitable and diversified workplace. The BAC's outward messaging pressured the entire Consulting Industry to reimagine the employee experience and encouraged other Consulting firms in the industry to take a public stance on DEI matters. Indeed, the BAC has also influenced our clients. I have participated in Black Action Council initiatives supporting Deloitte clients to advise and support them in creating diverse workforce cultures.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

When I think about the best advice I was ever given, I always go back to a quote by Maya Angelou that my mom would always remind me of both growing up or when I come to her on some of my hardest workdays and need her advice. The quote says, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." – Maya Angelou

As a follow-up, my mom always told me that everything can be resolved with a conversation, no matter how hard you think a situation is. I have carried this with me throughout my career. To me, it is most important that we recognize that people are complex individuals, and we have no idea the type of baggage they carry with them when coming to the workplace. I try to make it my own personal goal to make sure I am asking questions to understand how to approach that individual in that moment, and make sure they feel heard, supported and understood. When people feel that you are being genuine and authentic, you empower them to bring the best version of themselves to the workplace, and that's what I strive to achieve every day.

What does this recognition mean to you?

This recognition for me can be wrapped up into one work. Representation. In a field dominated by straight white men, being a gay, Black, veteran, I have had to navigate some pretty interesting dynamics with client and colleagues where I have found it may be very hard to establish common ground given how different we are. In challenging orthodoxies, I have been able to break our firm away from doing things the way we have always done them to doing things differently in the future to enable us to level the playing field for all practitioners, regardless of their affiliated community, to drive a more diverse and inclusive organization.

These changes require the perspectives of individuals across many communities and therefore access to have a seat and a voice at the table to drive change. The diversity of the award recipients encourages me and shows that our industry is moving in the right direction, and I am encouraged by how our industry will evolve in the future with representation being a business imperative.