Pinterest announces first diversity chief
Morgan to focus on hiring more women, minorities
Pinterest has hired its first diversity chief to help meet its goals to hire more women and underrepresented minorities.
Candice Morgan worked for nearly a decade at non-profit Catalyst Inc., where she advised companies in a range of industries on how to build more inclusive work cultures.
The hire is notable. While technology giants such as Facebook, Google and Intel have large staffs dedicated to increasing diversity, smaller tech companies have only just begun to hire diversity chiefs to increase the ranks of underrepresented groups, but they are doing so at much earlier stages. Pinterest, with 700 employees, is one of the world’s most valuable venturebacked start-ups and is one of the young pioneers in exploring how best to reach, recruit and retain women and minorities.
“Candice is a critical addition to our vision and will help build the programs and teams we need to reach our creative potential as a company, ”Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp said in a statement.
Morgan said she was drawn to Pinterest’s innovative approach to increasing diversity. “Pinterest is willing to experiment and really sees that no one is getting it 100% right and there is no one solution,” she said.
Currently, Pinterest has more women overall than most tech companies: 42%. But men dominate tech (79%), engineering (81%) and leadership (84%). Women fare better in business roles, where men account for 34% of employees.
Like most tech companies, Pinterest is overwhelmingly white (50%) and Asian (43%). Underrepresented minorities remain a fraction of the Pinterest workforce. African Americans account for 1% overall and in tech, 2% in business. Hispanics fare slightly better: 2% overall and in tech, 3% in business. The leadership of Pinterest is 47% white and 42% Asian.
Pinterest also announced two new programs to reach aspiring engineers from underrepresented backgrounds. The Pinterest Apprenticeship Program offers one-year stints to graduates of coding camps, and every three months during the program participants will be considered for a job with the company.
Pinterest Engage will offer eight-week summer internships to freshman students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program or with a demonstrated interest in majoring in computer science, computer engineering, software engineering or a related technical major.