Denise Young Smith, a.k.a. Apple’s first ever vice president of diversity and inclusion, is leaving the company.
Young Smith won the role earlier this year, having previously been Apple’s head of worldwide human resources. She will be replaced by Christie Smith, who joins Apple from Deloitte.
“We deeply believe that diversity drives innovation,” an Apple spokesperson told TechCrunch. “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.”
Photo: Apple
When Young was awarded her new role earlier this year, it was described as a “significant upscaling of responsibility,” compared to Apple’s previous attempts at diversity and inclusion.
Recently, however, Young Smith recently made headlines for arguably the wrong reasons when comments she made during a panel discussion at the One Young World Summit in Bogotá, Colombia were negatively reported.
“There can be 12 white, blue-eyed, blonde 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,” said Young Smith.
In the aftermath, the comments were met with derision in some quarters, since they appeared to go against tech’s drive at promoting greater levels of ethnic and gender diversity. Young Smith subsequently apologized.
Young Smith has reportedly been discussing the “next phase of her career and life” with Tim Cook since around one year ago, although it seems unlikely Apple would have promoted her had they known she was leaving.
She will soon take up a role as executive in residence at Cornell Tech. There, she will work with students to, “build an early career-stage awareness of inclusive leadership and diverse talent,” according to Cornell’s blog.
Source: TechCrunch
