It’s 2017 and Amazon only has one woman among its 18 most powerful executives
Even in a expertise trade rife with gender disparity, Amazon’s management group stands out among the most powerful firms for being virtually completely an all-boys membership.
Of the corporate’s 18 most powerful executives, 17 are males. At the highest sits Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his two deputies: Jeff Wilke, the CEO of its shopper enterprise, and Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services.
Below them is Amazon’s unique tier of 15 senior vice presidents. This group contains Jeff Blackburn, the corporate’s leisure head, and David Limp, who oversees the Amazon units division liable for tasks just like the Echo and Alexa.
The only woman within the group is Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vp of human sources.
The dynamic at Amazon’s highest ranks has not grow to be a significant narrative over the previous couple of years, at the same time as Amazon’s energy has grown and the expertise trade has come underneath fireplace for being dominated primarily by white males.
But as Amazon offers with the aftermath of a sexual harassment scandal involving its now-former studio head Roy Price, new questions are being raised internally about how the corporate can justify having so few girls in prime management packages.
“Some current and former employees are suggesting that the scarcity of women at the upper echelons of Amazon could have made the company more lenient toward Mr. Price until his actions became a public relations embarrassment,” The New York Times reported on Friday evening.
Several present and former workers have instructed Recode the identical. (Those who wish to talk about these points on the report or confidentially can e-mail me at [email protected], or attain me on safe messaging apps at 917-655-4267.)
A report by The Information final month disclosed that again in 2015, Amazon had identified about and investigated accusations by producer Isa Hackett that Price had harassed her. But only after Hackett went public with the graphic details of the incident did Amazon droop Price, who resigned shortly thereafter.
Amazon declined a request by Recode to make Bezos or any govt accessible for an interview in regards to the firm’s variety efforts. Instead, the corporate launched what comes throughout as a reasonably generic assertion from variety director Latasha Gillespie:
At Amazon we’re working to diversify our firm from a number of totally different angles. We are in search of to recruit extra numerous leaders throughout the corporate — from our entry stage roles to our most senior positions. We are targeted on retaining and growing numerous expertise internally by coaching and management alternatives. And we wish to guarantee our work surroundings is inclusive — so we’re searching for extra methods to floor and take heed to numerous views. Our workers are dedicated to our Leadership Principles, which incorporates in search of numerous views and working to disconfirm their very own beliefs. Amazonians – together with our most senior executives – are targeted on persevering with to construct a extra numerous and inclusive firm.
One factor I believed Amazon may level out is that there are a number of girls operating necessary elements of the corporate on the stage beneath the senior vice presidents. They embody Toni Reid, a vp overseeing Alexa; Stephenie Landry, a VP who runs Prime Now; and Jennifer Cast, the vp operating the corporate’s Amazon Books retail-store initiative.
However, it doesn’t appear clear to the workers Recode spoke to if or how these VPs may ever attain the SVP stage, the place they may have a extra direct line to Bezos.
Even together with a layer of administration beneath SVPs, 74 % of Amazon executives are white males. That compares to 68 % at Apple, 65 % at Google, and 51 % at Facebook, according to a recent Recode report.
The Times article revealed that Bezos was requested in regards to the lack of gender and racial variety among Amazon’s leaders at a current all-hands assembly. His response, in response to the report, was that enhancements would take time due to how sometimes prime executives depart the corporate.
That reply didn’t fulfill many workers.