
Even though Apple repeatedly claimed that diversity is one of the company’s biggest values, the actual numbers fail to confirm that.
Apple has rejected a diversity proposal, even though the famous company has repeatedly said that the company values diversity very much. When we think that the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook is the only gay chief executive found on Fortune 100, we might agree. But some reports came and questioned the company’s variety, especially when it comes to people of color and women.
At the beginning of January, the board of Apple actually refused a proposal that asked for the board of directors and the senior management to be more diversified. The proposal came from Antonio Avian Maldonado II, who has approximately 600 shares in the company. He is also the creative director of the Insignia Entertainment music company. Maldonado claimed in his proposal that the Native Americans, the Hispanics and the African Americans in particular failed to make it in the high positions of the company.
Last year, Maldonado said that he wanted things to change a bit when it came to Apple’s diversity, according to Bloomberg Business. He also said that not one of the diversity proposals made since 2000 was accepted. It is important to know that he was not asking that people should be fired or replaced. He was simply asking that more people should be added to the board in order to make it more diverse, which would not be unusual, especially since Apple is such a large company.
The executive team of Apple is made out of 18 members, of which only 3 members are women and one member is black. The board is made out of 8 members, of which only two members are women and one member is black.
The company’s officials said that the proposal is not necessary, since diversity and inclusion are the main values of Apple. Even though the number of women and black people decreased in 2015, Apple claimed that the company has been hiring more minorities and women than ever before.
According to Malli Gero, the president of the 2020 Women on Boards advocacy group, big companies like Apple should be more diverse, especially as many smaller companies lead by example. She also stated that giving the fact Apple has rejected a diversity proposal and that the lack of diversity is still a problem of the company, more action should be taken towards accomplishing better results in 2016.
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