Twitter appoints BET CEO Debra Lee to Board of Directors
A solution to the company's diversity problem at the executive level.
Following through on an earlier promise to diversify the company and better reflect its user base, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced today that BET CEO and Chairwoman Debra Lee will join the company's board of directors. Lee will also head up the company's Nominating/Governance committee.
Thrilled to be joining the @twitter board. It's transformed the media and the world like few other things in history (and continues to)!!
— Debra Lee (@IamDebraLee) May 16, 2016
In the past, Twitter has been criticized for being both too white and too male, and its previous attempt to hire a new head of diversity didn't exactly shift that perception at all. As civil rights leader Jesse Jackson pointed out last December, "Blacks and Latinos over-index on using Twitter, but their board of directors and C-suite leadership remain all white." As Lee takes her seat on the board, however, two other execs -- venture capitalist Peter Currie and media mogul Peter Chernin -- are stepping down. In April, the company also added Pepsico VP/CFO Hugh Johnson and British entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox to the board.
