Roslyn Neal Dickerson
Senior Vice President, Corporate Responsibility and Public Affairs
InterContinental Hotels Group, Atlanta
Hospitality is more than a buzzword for Roslyn Neal Dickerson. It?s the responsibility of the senior vice president of Atlanta-based InterContinental Hotels Group?s Americas Corporate Responsibility and Public Affairs division to make guests and employees alike feel welcome at all times. In an ever-changing industry and against a mostly sour economic backdrop, that calls for proactive, strategic leadership. Dickerson provides such leadership at IHG, hallmarked by new initiatives to promote community engagement, environmental sustainability, and diversity and inclusion.?
The drive and ability to achieve as much as she does with limited resources stem from her humble beginnings, she says. ?I grew up in a small town in a big family with little money,? she says. ?My parents were creative and wanted more for me than they were afforded themselves.?
?Dickerson raced through undergraduate studies in education and health sciences at Boston University, earned an MBA from Cornell University and embarked on a career in financial services, with executive stints at JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup. Prior to joining IHG in 2002, she sat in the C-suite at Honeywell International Inc. as chief diversity officer. Echoing Harlem Renaissance novelist Zora Neale Hurston, Dickerson says one of her favorite quotes is ?I?m sick and tired of being sick and tired.?
??The most important thing in my life is to do the same for my children that my parents did for me by providing opportunities for them that I didn?t have, so they will do the same for their children and so on,? she says.
Dickerson is a board member and former chairperson of the W.E.B. Du Bois Society. Other memberships include the American Hotel & Lodging Association; the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators & Developers; the Hispanic Hotel Owners Association and the U.S. Travel Association. She resides in Atlanta with her two sons.
