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Facebook just named two women to its board as it seeks gender parity - here are 13 tech companies that have recently diversified their boardrooms

Mar 17, 2020, 01:02 IST
  • Facebook went public with an all-male board, but nearly achieved gender parity last week when it added two women directors.
  • The announcement came as companies face growing pressure from employees, customers, investors, and lawmakers to increase diversity within their ranks, especially among upper leadership.
  • While the tech industry has moved slow so far, companies like Alphabet, Amazon, Airbnb, and HP are at least making some progress in the boardroom.
  • Here are 13 tech companies that have added diverse directors since the beginning of 2019.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook announced last week that it was adding a former McKinsey executive and Estée Lauder's CFO to its board, meaning 40% of the company's directors are now women. That's a significant change from 2012 when the social networking giant went public with an all-male board.

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Thanks to a variety of factors, including the #MeToo movement, employee walkouts, and calls to action from the investor community, there's been a growing awareness about the lack of diversity across all industries, and especially within tech.

While many major tech companies, including Facebook, started releasing annual workforce diversity stats several years ago, those efforts alone have not yet led to substantial gains for underrepresented groups - particularly among upper leadership levels and within corporate boardrooms.

That may finally be changing, however. Last year, a California law went into effect requiring public companies based in the state to have at least one woman on their board by the end of 2019 (and more by the end of 2021 for boards with at least five people) - leading 126 companies to recruit 138 women to their boards.

By the end of 2019, only 4% of California-based companies still had all-male boards, down from 29% in July 2018, according to KPMG.

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"I think we've reached a tipping point," said Shannon Gordon, CEO of theBoardlist, a company that helps connect women with public and private board opportunities, but she caveated that businesses still have a long way to go.

"There's certainly a strong pipeline out there, it's just a matter of companies being intentional about finding that talent," Gordon said.

Here are some of the companies within the tech industry that have found that talent - and added women to their boards in recent months:

Facebook added McKinsey executive Nancy Killefer and Estée Lauder CFO Tracey T. Travis to its board in March, meaning four of its 10 directors are now women. Facebook also brought on PayPal's executive vice president of sales, Peggy Alford, as the board's first African-American woman last April.

Airbnb recruited former Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts to its board last May.

Google parent company Alphabet brought on former Gilead Sciences executive Robin Washington last April and, in his first big move as CEO, Sundar Pichai appointed Nobel-winning scientist Frances Arnold.

Last February, Amazon named Starbucks chief operating officer Rosalind Brewer to its board as well as former Pepsi chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi.

Dropbox appointed Autodesk chief marketing officer Lisa Campbell and Intercom chief operating officer Karen Peacock to its board last August.

HP named former Google and Apple executive Yoky Matsuoka to its board last January. It has one of the most diverse boards of all publicly trade companies in the US, according to Refinitiv's diversity and inclusion index.

Netgear appointed venture capitalist and tech executive Janice Roberts to its board in February 2019 as well as former Polycom executive Laura Durr in January of this year, making four of the company's nine directors women.

PayPal announced last January that Deborah Messemer, a former managing director at KPMG, had joined its board.

ServiceNow appointed Deloitte's top San Francisco executive, Teresa Briggs, and Slack's chief product officer, Tamar Yehoshua, to its board last March.

Slack added Sheila Jordan, now chief digital technology officer at Honeywell, to its board in September.

Square appointed the National Basketball Association's chief innovation officer, Amy Brooks, to its board last October.

When California's law passed, TiVo was one of the companies with an all-male board. But last April, TiVo brought on Laura Durr (the same former Polycom executive who joined Netgear's board this year) as well as Loria Yeadon, CEO of YMCA Seattle and a longtime intellectual property expert.

Upwork announced last July that SurveyMonkey chief marketing officer Leela Srinivasan was joining its board.

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