Lee is the first African-American, and the third woman, to serve on the company’s board.
Advertisement
Lee, 61, appeared to be the answer to co-founder Jack Dorsey’s vow to diversify the social media giant’s board in his second stint as the company’s chief executive.
Twitter is adding a media executive to its board, appointing BET chairman and CEO Debra Lee as one of its directors.
“Thrilled to be joining the Twitter board”.
The executive chairman of Twitter’s board, former Google executive Omid Kordestani, also tweeted about the board’s latest addition, welcoming Lee.
Fortunately, Lee is already among the board’s most frequent tweeters. Lee has been chairman and CEO of BET since 2006. Omid Kordestani, a former Google executive, joined Twitter as executive chairman past year.
The company also announced that Marjorie Scardino, one of the other female board members, will take a leadership role now held by Peter Currie, whose term expires later this month.
Since before its November 2013 initial public offering, Twitter has faced criticism for its mostly white male board.
It’s a laudable goal, but it has not come without some controversy.
The social network has been widely criticized for its lack of diversity, as only 2 percent of its employees are black, a flaw that Twitter has modestly promised to fix by increasing the number minorities on staff from 10 percent to 11 percent.
Advertisement
“Twitter’s issues with growth and engagement and the issues with internal diversity are somewhat related”. “Any change would be approved by people who all think alike”. Lee will also serve as chair of Twitter’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, following the company’s stockholder meeting May 25. In December, the company named Jeffrey Siminoff, previously head of diversity at Apple, as the company’s vice president for diversity and inclusion.
