Serena accepts new challenge in Silicon Valley
Tennis star Serena Williams has 39 Grand Slam titles, four Olympic medals, major endorsement deals and her own line of clothing and accessories. Now she is embarking on a new mission: She says she wants to help tech companies diversify their workforces and solve one of the industry’s most vexing problems.
Williams, 35, will get her chance as she joins a Silicon Valley boardroom. Online poll-taking service SurveyMonkey announced Williams’ appointment to its board on Wednesday, along with Intuit CEO Brad Smith.
“I feel like diversity is something I speak to,” Williams said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Change is always happening; change is always building. What is important to me is to be at the forefront of the change and to make it easier for the next person that comes behind me.”
Williams didn’t offer specifics about her goals as a corporate di- rector. She implied that her presence can help push the company in a more diverse direction.
Individual board members donlt usually exert great influence over the companies they oversee, although they are often compensated handsomely in cash and stock for their part-time work. SurveyMonkey, a private company, didn’t say how much Williams will be compensated.
Silicon Valley’s lack of diversity has become a recurring source of embarrassment in a region that has long sought to position itself as an egalitarian place that doesn’t favor one gender, ethnicity or race over another. Yet that philosophy hasn’t been reflected in high-tech workforces, despite the efforts of companies such as Google, Apple and Facebook.
At SurveyMonkey, which employs about 650 workers, only 27 percent of technology jobs are filled by women. Just 14 percent of its total payroll consists of Af- rican-Americans, Latinos or people identifying themselves with at least two races.
Williams’ appointment is part of the solution, according to SurveyMonkey CEO Zander Lurie. “My focus is to bring in change agents around the table who can open our eyes,” he said.
Diversity advocates say women and minorities add value to corporate boards — as well as companies’ executive ranks — by offering new perspectives and advocating for a broader range of a company’s stakeholders, whether that’s customers, shareholders or employees.
In a report on France’s quota requirements for corporate boards, the business research group Conference Board found that the real value of adding women came from the fact that they were more likely to be outsiders. Racism is something Williams confronted and overcame at an early age when she began playing a predominantly white sport. She grew up to become the topranked female tennis player in the world.
Her connection to SurveyMonkey came through her friendship with Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer and another member of SurveyMonkey’s board. Sandberg’s husband, Dave Goldberg, was SurveyMonkey’s CEO before he died in 2015 while the couple was vacationing in Mexico.
“I have been interested in getting involved in Silicon Valley for years, so I have been kind of in the wading waters,” Williams said.
“Now, I am jumping into the deep end of the pool. When I do something, I go all out.”