It's long seemed as though white-collar offices in finance and tech largely ignored people of color and women when recruiting for important roles, creating a so-called boys' club for straight white men.

To recognize the growing scope of these new power players, Business Insider has selected 10 of the most influential leaders in diversity and inclusion working in top US companies.

In interviews with Business Insider, leaders shared their unique approach to diversifying their workplaces.

Some say the key to diversity is to ensure board rooms and C-suites include people of color, while others invest in pipeline programs within underserved communities.

Here are 10 of the most influential diversity and inclusion leaders in corporate America in 2020.

These regular events help fuel the discussions for people who might not understand what diversity and inclusion really mean, and it also starts an open dialogue for getting people in the same room to talk, Myers added.

Myers further explained that increasing representation and promoting positive employee experiences are best tackled with a top-down approach: Only when leaders understand the true value of diversity will it click for all employees.

Prophet, who has been the software giant's chief equality officer for the past three years, said the company gives team leaders a scorecard every 30 days to track how often they promote and hire women and underrepresented minorities.

He also launched a partnership with the Executive Leadership Council, a group comprising black business execs, to mentor underrepresented minority leaders within the company.

Durruthy tells Business Insider she believes that inclusion starts when people look outside their bubbles.

According to the company's 2019 "Workforce Diversity Report," nearly 41% of women employees are taking on leadership roles, which represents a 17% increase from the past three years, and a whopping 56% increase from the past five.

It sums up her approach to diversity and inclusion at the tech giant, which has one of the most diverse board of directors of any Fortune 100 tech company: An industry-impressive 58% of this key team is made up of minorities, and 42% is made up of women.

"It's an important part of our business strategy," Brown told Business Insider, who added that the company is not only working from the top down but from the bottom up, focusing on boosting diversity among its new hires.

HP's US workforce comprises about 37% women, 27% people of color, and 4.2% veterans, according to the company.

Hilton, a 100-year-old company, created its formal framework for diversity and inclusion only in 2010, according to the company's site.

But Fuentes said the hotel chain's commitment to the foundations of hospitality has long extended to inclusion and diversity.

"Conrad Hilton founded the company on this notion that travel could foster peace and cultural understanding," Fuentes told Business Insider.

"My fundamental premise is that intelligence, brilliance, and talent are equally distributed among populations, but opportunity is not," Williams told Business Insider.

(An SAP spokesperson told Business Insider the company could not provide the names of the other companies that have signed on.).

Employees with a sense of belonging can feel more comfortable speaking up regarding new ideas, giving Intel a competitive advantage over other tech companies, Whye told Business Insider.

Each year, Whye and Intel survey over 7,000 randomly selected employees to ask them how the company can improve on inclusion.

"I am most excited, and incredibly inspired, by the fact that we have just scratched the surface," Brand told Business Insider.

Leaders also shared publicly for the first time, in 2019, the results of its inclusion index, which is the company's anonymous survey on employee sentiments around diversity and inclusion

Achieving diversity isn't about checking a box, said Tucker, chief inclusion officer at Mastercard