The Directors to Watch: Racial & Ethnic Diversity Class of 2025 highlights 24 significant and diverse directors who have contributed to and will continue to expand ongoing dialogue on board best practices and corporate governance excellence.
Deidra Merriwether
Weyerhaeuser Company
Deidra Merriwether is senior VP and CFO of W.W. Grainger Inc. Known for delivering consistent top-quartile performance, Merriwether is an accomplished leader with broad management, operations and financial experience.
She started her career as an engineer. After attaining her master's degree, she pivoted to build her business expertise at companies such as PwC and Sears Holdings Corporation. In 2013, she joined Grainger as VP, finance, and held impactful operations, sales and pricing positions before becoming CFO in 2021.
Merriwether serves on the audit committee of Weyerhaeuser, chairs the finance committee of North Carolina A&T State University Athletic Foundation, and serves on the board of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
She is a fellow of the CEO Perspectives and CFO Leadership programs at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and Harvard Business School.
Establish a core set of indicators to drive constructive conversation. “Transparent and actionable key performance and risk indicators are essential for boards to provide successful oversight, effectively support management, and drive results and governance for shareholders. The inverse relationship between the depth of available information and the time boards need to fulfill fiduciary responsibilities can limit essential conversations. Establishing a core set of indicators helps directors ask the right, open-ended questions to uncover areas of risk and potential performance challenges. They can then work together with management to improve business outcomes and mitigate risks through business actions, as well as process and control optimization.”