Uber hires first-ever chief diversity and inclusion officer
Following former US Attorney General Eric Holder's recommendations, the ride-hailing company creates a senior executive position to handle diversity.
Uber has created a senior executive position to tackle diversity and inclusion. It's hired Bo Young Lee for the job.
After a year wracked by allegations of workplace sexual harassment and gender discrimination, Uber aims to put diversity front and center.
The ride-hailing company has hired its first chief diversity and inclusion officer, Bo Young Lee. Lee's hiring comes after an investigation into Uber's workplace culture, led by former US Attorney General Eric Holder, concluded the company needs to do more around company diversity.
"Building a culture where everyone feels included and can bring their whole selves to work is critical to the new culture we're building," Liane Hornsey, Uber's chief people officer, said in a statement Tuesday. "Bo has a proven track record of building environments where all employees feel proud, included and committed."
Uber's troubles around diversity came to a head last February when former engineer Susan Fowler wrote about her "very, very strange year at Uber." She detailed a chaotic company culture rife with gender bias, sexual harassment and unprofessional business practices.
Following Fowler's blog post, Uber hired Holder to conduct his inquiry and, for the first time, released its diversity statistics. Those stats showed that, like most tech companies, Uber's employees were majority white and male.
In June, Uber's board of directors agreed to adopt all of Holder's recommendations, which included having a senior executive filling the role of chief diversity and inclusion officer. Additionally, the board forced the company's infamously aggressive then-CEO, Travis Kalanick, to resign. Uber's new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, came on in August and has promised to foster diversity and be more transparent.
Lee comes to Uber from the financial services firm Marsh & McLennan, where she also served as the global diversity and inclusion officer. She will start her new position at Uber in March, according to Recode, which first reported this story.
"As I was interviewing for this role, it became very clear that Uber is taking their cultural transformation seriously and truly wants to create a culture where every single person feels proud and heard," Lee said in a statement. "There's much more work to be done, and I'm excited to bring my experience to the table."
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