I, Steve Benz, personally commit to the following:

Personal Commitment

• Use my voice and platform, as General Counsel of Novo Nordisk, Inc., to elevate diverse perspectives and to champion equitable opportunities across the industry and at Novo Nordisk 
• To hold myself and my fellow leaders – both across the industry and my peers on the Novo Nordisk Executive Team – accountable for meaningful and sustained investment and engagement in DE&I, including through active participation and leadership in LCLD and in the Novo Nordisk Employee Resource Groups: Veterans at Novo Nordisk and NovoEqual (LGBTQ Employees and their Allies)
• To seek out and continually listen and learn from others’ experiences and perspectives, and to challenge my own DE&I perceptions
• To help drive the DE&I conversation from “tell me” to “show me” by ensuring we drive measurable progress in these areas  

Organizational Commitment

• Foster an inclusive and collaborative department culture where every team member feels a sense of belonging, is valued and empowered, and has the support needed to reach their full potential  
• Embed D&I into our organizational culture and operating model
• Ensure a strong pipeline of diverse talent in our organization through our:
• Recruiting and hiring practices by ensuring diverse slates of qualified candidates
• Development opportunities for legal professionals both within the Legal department and across the company
• Diverse talent mentoring program
• Succession planning process and ensuring diverse talents are being developed for leadership roles
• Continually enrich and challenge our DE&I understanding and efforts by (1) creating forums to learn from one another; (2) standing up a department diversity council to serve in an advisory capacity; and (3) leveraging involvement in organizations such as LCLD to gain external insights and best practice sharing
• Hold our external law firm and vendor partners accountable for meaningful DE&I commitments and advances, not just metrics 

Metrics

• Create department DE&I scorecard and assess progress against goals on a bi-annual basis; require each department leader to include DE&I commitments as part of their annual team goals
• On yearly basis, conduct an organizational survey to better understand employee perspectives and concerns on DE&I and create action plans to address any gaps or needs
• Active participation in LCLD by nominating (2) fellows annually and (2) attending a leadership meeting/summit every year
• Recruiting: hire one diverse summer intern per year, leveraging programs such as the LCLD 1L Scholars Program; ensure diverse slate of candidates for all recruiting efforts 
• Continuous development of diverse talent: highlight diverse team members in leadership team talent discussions on bi-annual basis, and align effective mentors with diverse team members 
• Outside counsel/vendor selection: develop concrete DE&I expectations for external legal service partners; ensure diversity embedded into 100% of outside firm selection and staffing discussions; bi-annual diversity assessment of outside firms