Coalfire Statement on Racial Injustice

In honor of Juneteenth, I wanted to reflect and share my thoughts.

At Coalfire, we are committed to living our values: Respect, Excellence, Leadership, Integrity, Teamwork, and Enthusiasm. As a result, Coalfire stands against racism, violence, and hate. We stand with fairness, equity, and justice.

During a recent company-wide call, I reaffirmed the importance of our values and made a commitment that Coalfire is striving to be actively anti-racist. I firmly believe that if an employee is unwilling to be against racism, violence, and hate or unwilling to live all our values, then Coalfire is not the right fit for them.

Every day, the Black community experiences unfair bias, violence, and systemic racism, and these battles are not new. The tragic and horrific murders of black individuals did not start on May 25, 2020. These problems have permeated our society and continued for far too long. Society should have stepped up to rectify these issues, and Coalfire could have done more or taken a public stance sooner. Today, we are committing to being part of the solution. We will act on our promise of being anti-racist, and we urge everyone to join the movement.

Striving for equality is not entirely new at Coalfire. We took our first steps for diversity and inclusion (D&I) last June. Our employees and leadership team participated in a summit to begin transitioning from concept to reality. We formed a D&I council, and it was formally launched in November. Our council laid the framework for change and regularly added D&I topics to the company focus and conversations. The council also implemented efforts to increase collaboration and training for our people managers and recruiting team. These initiatives started our journey, but we fully acknowledge that we have just begun.

The last year has highlighted that change is possible, and our words matter. Most importantly, we understand that words alone are not enough; instead, we must take well-defined, continuous action. To create our action plan, the executives and D&I council will not act alone. We will include and incorporate all Coalfire voices.

I would like to share our first three commitments for fighting racism and inequality:

1. We will truly listen. We will continue to provide a safe space where employees can come forward to share their feelings, experiences, and ideas to help drive change.
2. We will challenge ourselves to learn about racism and bias in our society and within ourselves.
3. We will not shy away from uncomfortable conversations.

These commitments are our starting point because creating a strong action plan is not possible without first taking the time to listen and learn. We started by holding employee forums in early June. We will continue these internal conversations and work together to develop our next steps for support and action. Updates on what Coalfire is doing to stand for fairness, equity, and justice will be shared on our website in the coming weeks.

Overall, Coalfire is passionate about our mission to make the world a safer place. Whether it’s the cyber world or the physical world, everyone should feel safe. We will use this passion and our commitment to racial justice to drive meaningful decisions that generate lasting change.

Related Press releases: 

US Department of Labor awards Coalfire 2021 HIRE Vets Medallion

Coalfire CEO Tom McAndrew Receives Federal Asian Pacific American Council Uniformed Services Award