Apple taps ex-BofA banking exec as latest diversity chief
Apple has hired a new diversity chief for the fourth time in recent years. Banking veteran Cynthia Bowman is taking over the role from Barbara Whye, becoming vice president of inclusion and diversity.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
Banking veteran Cynthia Bowman is taking over the role from Barbara Whye, becoming vice president of inclusion and diversity. Bowman left Bank of America Corp. earlier this year after a 17-year career there, serving most recently as chief diversity, inclusion and social responsibility officer.
“We are excited that Cynthia Bowman will serve as Apple’s next Vice President of Inclusion and Diversity,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement. “Cynthia is an accomplished leader in her field and is deeply committed to the work we’re doing to advance inclusion and diversity at Apple.”
The job involves reporting to Apple’s chief people officer, Carol Surface, and working with groups within the company to support diversity. Apple also has a $200 million Racial Equity and Justice initiative that focuses on education, criminal justice reform and economic equality.
At the same time, the broader push for diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, has faced a backlash in corporate America. The proportion of US companies that fund a DEI function is set to drop to just 20% by the end of this year, compared with 33% in 2022, according to Forrester Research.
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MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s CEO suffers greatly from room illiteracy.
Making hiring decisions based on skin color is, by definition, racist. – MacDailyNews, July 14, 2023
Carol Surface is aptly surnamed.
Getting the absolute best people should remain Apple’s ultimate goal. Forced diversity carries its own set of problems. Would the group be comprised of the best-qualifed people possible or would it be designed to hit pre-defined quotas? Would some employees, consciously or unconsciously, consider certain employees, or even themselves, to be tokens meant to fill a quota? That would be a suboptimal result for Apple and everyone involved.
The best and desired outcome is for the quest for diversity to work in Apple’s favor. Truly looking at qualified people from a larger pool would likely result in delivering different viewpoints and new ways of looking at things and tackling problems than a more homogenized workforce would likely be capable of delivering.
Regardless and of course, someday it sure would be nice for everyone to just be able to evaluate a person’s potential, not measuring and tabulating superficial, meaningless things like skin color and gender.
How do we ever get to the point where people “will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” when we insist on judging people by the color of their skin? — MacDailyNews, December 31, 2015
See also:
• Apple on the losing side as Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action in college admissions – June 29, 2023
• Several U.S. state attorneys general threaten legal action over Apple, others’ ‘diversity’ policies – July 14, 2023
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