For the first time publicly, Stan Sims, senior vice president and chief security officer at CGI, shares his story of growing up in the rural south as an African-American during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. The son of sharecroppers in Arkansas, Sims began working and helping his family by the time he was elementary school-aged. In fact, he has worked most of his life. During his adolescence, Sims asked his father ⏤ who never graduated from high school ⏤ what he needed to do to get off the farm and do something else. “He said: ‘Son, you need to get an education. If you don’t want to do what we’re doing, you want to have a better life, then you need to get an education,'” Sims shares.

Tune in to hear how Sims took that advice to heart, used his strong work ethic, perspective and ambition to eventually graduate with a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees; earn the title of a decorated combat veteran with over 36 years of combined military and public service experience; and later, rise through the ranks in the corporate world.