Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are calling on Uber to diversify its corporate leadership by considering African Americans for senior executive positions.
On Monday, the CBC sent a letter to the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company that noted several senior-level vacancies, including CEO and COO, that “would benefit from African-American leadership.” They also noted that the company has no Black members on its board of directors.
“These transitions present Uber with the opportunity to improve the culture of the company itself by diversifying its board,” the letter stated, signed by caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La.) and Reps. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.).
An Uber spokesman told the tech publisher Recode, in response to the letter, that the company is “committed to making Uber a more diverse and inclusive workplace at all levels of the organization, and we’ll continue to engage with community leaders like the CBC as we work to achieve this important goal.”
Business Insider reported earlier this month that nine of Uber’s most senior executives left the company since February. Many people took notice of Uber’s leadership issues when CEO Travis Kalanick resigned on June 20 following “a shareholder revolt,” as The New York Times describe it.
A caucus aide told The Hill that the letter is part of an effort to revive the CBC’s Tech 2020 campaign, launched in 2015 to increase inclusion of African Americans in the tech industry.
Apple recently took a step in that direction when it hired Denise Young Smith to head its global human resources program, making her the tech giant’s first vice president of diversity and inclusion.
In the letter, the caucus told Uber that this is an opportunity to “emerge as a leader on diversity and inclusion and set a standard that your peers should emulate.”
SOURCE: Recode, Business Insider, New York Times, The Hill
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CBC Urges Uber To Consider African Americans For Top Executive Positions was originally published on newsone.com
