- Denise Young Smith, Apple’s first head of diversity and inclusion will depart the tech giant after less than six months in the role
- Smith caused controversy when she said she thought it was possible for a group of white men to represent diversity by having a range of life experiences
- The comments were made during a conference in October
- Christie Smith, a longtime Deloitte partner, will take over the role
Apple’s diversity chief is stepping down just six months after taking on the job after declaring that being minority or a woman are not the only criteria for diversity.
Denise Young Smith only took on the role of vice president of diversity and inclusion in May.
‘There can be 12 white, blue-eyed, blond men in a room and they’re going to be diverse too because they’re going to bring a different life experience and life perspective to the conversation,’ the inaugural diversity chief said during a One Young World Summit in Bogotá, Colombia.
‘Diversity is the human experience,’ she said. ‘I get a little bit frustrated when diversity or the term diversity is tagged to the people of color, or the women, or the LGBT.’
Denise Young Smith became head of vice president of diversity and inclusion in May but she claimed white men were as diverse as women and the LGBT community. She was forced to go
Her comments do little to change Apple’s overwhelmingly white and male leadership team.
In 2017, only 3 percent of Apple’s leaders were black with women holding just 23 percent of tech jobs. , and women held just 23 percent of tech jobs, according to Fortune. Female leadership stood at 29 percent, Apple said.
Smith had been with the company for 20 years and was the company’s head of worldwide human resources.
She was then forced to apologized for her remarks and told staff that they ‘were not representative of how I think about diversity or how Apple sees it.’
‘For that, I’m sorry,’ she said in a company email. ‘More importantly, I want to assure you Apple’s view and our dedication to diversity has not changed.’
Women make up 23 percent of Apple’s engineering staff. Just 28 percent of the company’s managers are female, seven percent of its managers are Hispanic and three percent of its managers are black (Pictured, Young Smith at September 2014)
Smith will now leave the company at the end of the year and will be replaced by Christie Smith (no relation), who worked at Deloitte.
‘We deeply believe that diversity drives innovation,’ an Apple spokesman said a statement. ‘We’re thrilled to welcome an accomplished leader like Christie Smith to help us continue the progress we’ve made toward a more diverse workplace.
‘Meaningful change takes time,’ the company said in its diversity report. ‘We’re proud of our accomplishments, but we have much more work to do.’