The information technology industry could generate an additional $400 billion annually if its workforce better reflected the ethnic and gender diversity of the U.S. labor pool, CompTIA CEO Todd Thibodeaux said Tuesday.

Speaking at CompTIA's annual ChannelCon conference in Austin, Texas, Thibodeaux pointed to research showing a 1 percentage point move toward representative diversity leads to a 3-point increase in revenue.

"Companies in the top quartile for ethnic and gender diversity are more likely to surpass industry norms for revenue and operating margin," Thibodeaux said. "Companies in the bottom quartile for diversity aren't just lagging behind, they are rapidly losing ground."

If the IT industry's workforce better reflected the diversity of the work pool, "we'd have 1 million more women and 500,000 Hispanics, African-Americans and Native Americans in our workforce," he said.

The CEO added that the tech industry isn't just Silicon Valley. Millions of people work in tech jobs at non-tech companies.

"These companies and individuals represent the complete breadth of the opportunities we have to offer." Thibodeaux said. "But the overemphasis on Silicon Valley leads people to think if they can't work for one of the big brand name firms, why bother?" http://read.bi/2ukeldO

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