Wednesday 30 December 2015

Twitter Hires LGBT+ Advocate To Oversee Diversity


The social media networking giant Twitter has faced a great deal of criticism over the last few months over their workplace diversity as their own figures painted a less than desirable picture.  According to it's own reports it was revealed that within their US workforce only 3% of staff were African American, and only 30% were female.

In August this year Janet Van Huysse, Head of Diversity and Inclusion, announced several targets that the company has set for itself going forward into 2016.  These include increasing the number of women working for Twitter to 35%, and increasing 'underrepresented minorities' to 11%.

Jeffrey Siminoff, the former director of worldwide inclusion and diversity at Apple, has now replaced Van Huysse as Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, and aims to meet these 2016 targets.

Siminoff helped to launch the inaugural 'Out on the Street' event in 2022, which looks at the ways of advancing LGBT+ equality in the business and financial sectors.  CEO of Out Leadership Todd Sears, was amongst the first to congratulate Siminoff on his appointment, tweeting 'Amazing news!  Congrats @TwitterOpen on landing amazing #OutLeader @jmsSanFran to drive #lgbtprogress & #diversity'.

Despite his track record of promoting diversity and inclusion in the past some people have taken to twitter to question the decision of hiring a white man to head diversity and inclusion.

Amy.
xx

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