As global companies recalibrate their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in response to the Trump administration’s pushback against such initiatives, business schools are quietly moving in the opposite direction by redesigning executive education programs to make DEI a pillar of modern, inclusive leadership.
Donald Trump opened his second term with a flurry of executive orders aimed at dismantling DEI programs across the U.S. government, and his administration has signaled plans to challenge DEI-related initiatives in the private sector as well. Meanwhile, in Europe, the trend is moving the other way, with several new and revived laws and initiatives seeking to strengthen DEI protections.
Business schools – particularly those outside the U.S. – are using this turbulent moment to reimagine the role of DEI in business and society. By highlighting DEI’s impact on performance, innovation, growth and economic opportunity, they view this period not as a setback but as a chance to redefine what DEI truly means for modern leadership.
DEI as core business strategy, not a standalone practice
The Vlerick Business School in Belgium has restructured its executive education offerings to embed DEI directly into core business strategy rather than treating it as a separate module.
“We’ve pivoted toward helping companies design DEI strategies that emerge from within,” explains Smaranda Boros, professor of intercultural management and organizational behavior at the school. “Rather than having DEI sessions, we discuss inclusion and culture as part of our strategy course offerings.”
At Canada’s Rotman School of Management in Toronto, DEI is not a check-the-box requirement but a defining element of the program’s identity, says Stephanie Hodnett, executive director of executive programs. “It’s central to our values but also a fundamental business skill, driving innovation and leadership across a diverse workforce.”
In Germany, ESMT Berlin takes a similar approach.
“At the heart of DEI in executive education is not only ensuring diversity but creating a generative space where different perspectives and ideas can truly emerge,” says Qiao Zhang, deputy director of executive programs.
Hodnett says the emphasis is shifting from DEI’s moral framing to its practical value. “We believe DEI principles drive business innovation and advance economic goals,” she says. “For businesses to withstand the ever-shifting geopolitical landscape, these skills are increasingly critical to success.”
Reimagining DEI inside executive education classrooms
Rotman’s classrooms intentionally reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. The school provides financial aid for those in need, accommodates participants with visible or invisible disabilities, and recruits from industries or communities that have not traditionally sent executives to business school.
“DEI best practices are woven into the content of all our programs and audited by DEI experts to ensure we keep adapting,” Hodnett explains.
Hodnett points to Rotman’s Inclusive Business Innovation course, which teaches leaders to apply inclusive analytical tools to identify new opportunities for growth. “It’s geared toward anyone who wants to link inclusion directly to innovation,” she says.
ESMT partners with corporate clients to bring together executives from multiple regions – often across continents. Zhang highlights a leadership development program with automotive engineering group Schaeffler that ran in Germany, the U.S., and Singapore.
“We use experiential formats — virtual escape games, outdoor challenges, theater-based interventions — that push participants beyond their usual viewpoints,” she says. “Then we build in reflection sessions with coaches to help participants process these experiences and appreciate the richness of different perspectives.”
For Zhang, diversity strengthens not only inclusion but performance. “In international or cross-cultural settings, working with people from different backgrounds forces leaders to question their assumptions and bring empathy and cultural intelligence,” she says.
“It strengthens peer learning and makes discussions more dynamic, closer to the complexity of real markets. Done well, executive education becomes a laboratory for innovation.”
Adapting DEI to new social and political realities
The belief that diversity fuels creativity and adaptability runs through all three schools’ programs. But there is also a growing recognition that DEI must evolve to meet shifting social and political realities.
“DEI is not about perfection, but about managing paradoxes,” says Boros at Vlerick. “We help leaders work with tensions — between growth and fairness, local norms and global goals — through emotional intelligence and conflict navigation.”
She sees a future where DEI becomes “a new lens on leadership and systems change”, shaping not only what participants learn, but how they learn.
“The future curriculum must become more geographically and historically grounded,” she says. “Structural inequality looks different in Hungary than in Kenya, just as identity means something else in a German engineering firm than in a Nigerian fintech start-up. This demands nimble, context-sensitive teaching.”
Boros expects classrooms to become spaces of emotional experimentation. “DEI learning will require working through difficult conversations rather than avoiding them,” she says. “Teaching will train leaders in holding paradox — managing both group harmony and challenging truths, pushing for progress while respecting resistance.”
She adds that the next wave of executive programs will spotlight less visible dimensions of diversity, such as aging workforces, migration, neurodiversity and disability. “These are less talked about but increasingly strategic,” she notes.
