“Apple’s head of Worldwide Human Resources Denise Young Smith will now run diversity programs for the company under a newly created VP position, according to sources familiar with the move,” Jordan Kahn reports for 9to5Mac. “The executive shuffle will see the creation of a new VP role for Apple’s Inclusion and Diversity team with Smith reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook. ”
“Smith’s new role going forward at Apple will officially be Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity. She confirmed the new title today on her LinkedIn profile and the change has also been made official at Apple internally,” Kahn reports. 
“Apple’s previous head of diversity and inclusion Jeffrey Siminoff held a director role from 2013 until January 2016 before leaving to [join] Twitter,” Kahn reports. “He reported to [Smith] who reported to Tim Cook, but now the Inclusion and Diversity team headed by Smith will report directly to Cook, making the new VP position the first to do so.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s “Inclusion and Diversity” page is here.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s board has urged shareholders to reject proposal to tie executive compensation to racial diversity quotas – February 27, 2017
Apple Inc. fights shareholders group demand for more diversity – February 15, 2017
Apple’s Board of Directors says a call for diversity is ‘unduly burdensome and not necessary’ – January 15, 2016
Apple leads Facebook, Intel, Cisco, Google on gender diversity among Bay Area companies – November 17, 2015
Apple’s latest diversity report shows progress – August 13, 2015
Tim Cook is ‘personally involved’ in improving diversity at Apple Inc. – July 14, 2015
Apple donates over $50 million to diversity efforts – March 10, 2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook met privately with Jesse Jackson regarding diversity – December 9, 2014
Apple adds Vice Presidents, more diversity to Executive Leadership Team – August 15, 2014
A message from Apple CEO Tim Cook on diversity – August 12, 2014
Jesse Jackson calls on Obama to scrutinize tech industry’s ‘lack of diversity’ – July 28, 2014
Tim Cook: Apple will release diversity data ‘at some point’ – July 9, 2014
Jesse Jackson targets tech’s lack of diversity; sends letter to Apple, Google, HP, others – March 19, 2014
Apple changes bylaws after facing criticism about lack of diversity on board – January 9, 2014
vomit.
Geez, George Orwell was prophetic.
while Inclusion and Diversity is a good thing, from watching my son be the most reliable, customer loved, tech savvy retail genius for 10 years not getting time of day by corporate HR after months of trying and trying then walking away from Apple says it all. Apple C Suite is phoney (pardon the pun) and disingenuous.
stuck in neutral, did you ever think that maybe your son wasn’t as qualified as his parents thought? I know it’s easier to blame ‘unqualified minorities’, but maybe he just wasn’t that good. Perhaps he should have worked harder for that job… you know, personal responsibility and all.
No, Martin, he didn’t think of that. Similarly, the others posting here against hiring minorities have never considered that some of these minority applicants might have been hired because they were more qualified than the white male Christians who also applied.
Given otherwise identical resumes and interviews, like tends to hire like. So, white guys tend to hire white guys. There is a huge body of research that proves this. Perhaps Apple, being a high-tech company, has chosen to rely on the research and not on the intuitive notion that “people like us” are always more qualified than “people like them.”
A particular black lesbian woman is sometimes simply better at the job than a particular white straight man… if she ever gets the chance to prove it. Affirmative action is simply an effort to make sure that the person who gets the job is the most qualified, and not just the one who most reminds the interviewer of himself.
In addition, having a workforce that reflects the social makeup of your customer base is an advantage in the marketplace. It avoids groupthink and makes quality control enormously more reliable.
It also means that your product is more likely to meet the requirements and desires of the overwhelming majority of your customers who are not young straight white male geeks with no discernible immigrant origins. Apple makes its money by selling electronic devices (including but not limited to computers) to the general public, not just to male nerds.
But that reality clashes with the meme that affirmative action is about hiring unqualified minority applicants. Some people cannot be swayed by facts. It is so much easier to reduce the cognitive dissonance by believing “alternative facts.”
I’m sorry, but these kind of people make me nervous.
Trying to diversify your company so you have people of all colors, religions, ideas, thoughts, and cultures is a great theory but how does it work in a real world setting?
You have mr white guy and mr Asian with a phd and experience over here trying to make it to your programming division but because you’re trying to be “fair” to everyone, you end up hiring a bachelor degree lady from Zimbabwe with zero experience. No offense to anyone from Zimbabwe it’s just that you turned away 2 qualified people because you’re over staffed on whites, asians, and men.
That’s a rough example of what I’m kind of afraid of.
Today it seems, we have to be “fair” to everyone so it’s not based on qualities anymore but rather skin color which is all performed under the name of diversity and fairness.
(Even though it ends up not being fair to the white or Asian guy)
I’m one of those old school people who likes to see people hired based on actual skills, experience, and qualities rather than race or sexual orientation. (Maybe I’m just getting old and am not used to this new modern world)
why are you apologizing for being right?
Because he does have a feeling that he may actually be wrong.
This VP for inclusion and diversity is there to ensure that Apple continues to remove bias from their hiring staff. Silicon Valley is rife with this, and it isn’t really a reflection of any inherent racism, but simply the instinctive desire to hire people who look and behave like you. This is precisely what has brought on so much trouble for Uber and its powerful “bro” culture.
If you remove hiring bias, then you have a chance of truly hiring the most qualified, talented and dedicated talent.
There is a TV show called “Silicon Valley’ that very successfully illustrates all these issues with the industry. In more than one episode, the genius engineers show their profound social ineptitude around women, and when a lone woman engineer is brought into the team, this is painfully obvious.
Apple needs this VP mainly for the PR reasons, since they have already been making a concerted effort to remove this hiring bias, but it never hurts to have someone dedicate their time to do specifically this and nothing else.
you watch too much tee-vee.
He watches too much of the wrong tee vee, for sure.
Source:
” target=”_new” rel=”nofollow”>Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, May 18, 2017
Ailes’s rules for selling a TV message were simple. His book, “You are the Message”, spelled it out. Play to your strengths. Don’t pick defence. Say what you want to say. Be emotional, not intellectual; keep to themes, avoid details.
In other words, don’t offer concise analysis using all the facts, just present yourself as the authority. be a self centered pompous ass like botvinnik and firsty. Problem is, these partisan waterboys have no friends and look forward to a miserable future when they discover friends cannot be purchased.
:::sniff:::
will you be muh friend?
“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.” – Milton Friedman
People must be free to choose their paths. Companies must be free to choose the most excellent people they can find notwithstanding irrelevant factors such as gender, creed, and especially the awful myth of “race.”
If you want to create more diversity in the future, starting with children in the earliest stages of education is the way you do it. You must teach them from day one that they and no one else are responsible for their successes and their failures. They must learn the value of education, competition, individuality, excellence, and character.
I know that this is contrary to the collectivist/socialist way of thinking, but it must be this way otherwise all you will do, all you will accomplish is the institutionalizing of medocrity. Getting a job at Apple is something the best people should compete for. It should not be turned into some kind of participation trophy. People should compete for jobs, and employers should compete for the best people. This is the road to success.
Political Correctness is the path to decline, dysfunction and irrelevance. Meritocracy should always be the Prime Directive.
Silicon Valley is a sausage fest because not many women go into Engineering and the same is true of certain minority groups- some are over represented and some not so much. Should Apple hire a quota of X fill in the blanks just because or should they hire the absolute best people they can find?
Seeking diversity is a good thing- mandating it is usually a thinly disguised cover for hiring unqualified of less well qualified people to satisfy some outside group. Imagine if the Air Force decided to take a quota of homeless, drug addicted dropouts because in a country of millions of homeless, drug addicted dropouts there were zero as Wing Commanders. Or how about the Army Green Berets being forced to quota in overweight diabetics? Does that sound like rational behavior?
As a shareholder, I want Apple to recruit and retain the absolute best people they can find, hire without fear or favor and develop them with progressive responsibility as they are promoted over their careers. All the rest is bullshit.
There are any number of organizations splitting their guts trying to attract more Women and African-Americans into STEM and have for years. Apparently there are not too many takers.
As to hiring bias, the best example is the Supreme Court of the United States. Take a look at the CVs of the Supremes and there is little diversity of educational background- Harvard Law School to the horizon. There are any number of Law Schools in these United States as good or better than Harvard and they are all under-represented. Robert Jackson served as Solicitor General, Attorney General and as a Supreme Court Justice and did not graduate from Law School.
And who corrects the prejudice and partially inherent in the Commissar of Inclusion and Diversity? I am amazed that you you think that lower echelon employees in the HR department involved in selecting and reviewing legitimate candidates are fundamentally flawed as individuals. Sounds like you are a little prejudiced and biased.
You don’t seem to understand how this works.
She is not supposed to pick candidates. Her prejudice is not relevant. Her job is to evaluate policies and rules, and make sure that they preclude any inherent bias in hiring.
There is no doubt that any echelon of employees comes with inherent biases into their work. It takes training and rules to recognise this bias and figure out how to eliminate it from the selection process.
How about sticking to diversity of IDEAS. Toss the touchy feely, inclusion crap in the garbage.
Wanna know a really good way to get diversity of ideas? Through diversity of people! What a novel idea. Let me guess… white male?!?
“Let me guess… white male?!?”
RAAAAAAY-CHIS! U IZ RAAAAAAY-CHISSS!
Let me guess, you too?! Ignorant people thinking they are clever is always amusing. I also like how you up vote your comments immediately. Nothing says desperation like starring your own comments before anyone else. You are a pitiful, actual racist.
Yours truly,
Martin
raaaaaay-chiss!
State and federal laws prohibit descrimination based on ethnicity, culture, religion, etc. What else can Tim Cook do? He obeys the law? So what? That is the minimum. Should Tim Cook be revered for doing what is right? Should Tim Cook be considered more righteous or commendable for doing nothing more than obeying the law? Thousands of others do the same.
Show me proof of that? Take the best people. What does gender or race have to do with it. If the best choices are all Asian women..so be it. Affirmative action is just a form of modern discrimination.
You’re nervous, oh no! White guys so easily spooked. Your example is terrible, because it doesn’t happen that way. Companies don’t hire unqualified people in lieu of qualified people for diversity purposes, but we know they often exclude people of color based solely on an ethnic name (there are many studies that show this). I can’t believe people think they have a real argument when they say that diversity and inclusion efforts are unfair to the white guy when the white guy has been the beneficiary of non-diversity and exclusionary efforts for centuries. Jesus, talk about snowflake crybabies.
“Companies don’t hire unqualified people in lieu of qualified people for diversity purposes,”
. . . What planet do you live on?
“but we know they often exclude people of color based solely on an ethnic name (there are many studies that show this).”
. . . and just as many that show the reverse.
I can’t believe people think they have a real argument when they say that diversity and inclusion efforts are unfair to the white guy when the white guy has been the beneficiary of non-diversity and exclusionary efforts for centuries.
I live in a heavy generational poverty area. Come and look at the ethnic make up, look at the racial diversity when one ethnic group has equal footing; then look at the racial make up of the local governmental and law enforcement AFTER racial diversity looses. It doesn’t favor racial diversity.
. . . and don’t attempt to classify me personally as one sided or in what some libs call a hate group. I have spent many years overseas in different ethnic groups where I was the real minority. Didn’t bother me a bit. They are people just like me with a different cultural background and language.
I have no idea what you are trying to say. Go take a writing/communications class, because you have no real arguments (and you write and spell poorly). “What planet do you live on” is a great retort! That job you didn’t get, you clearly didn’t deserve.
Who said anything about MY job? not me. Obviously you can’t think.
ばかでしょう！
From the moron who can’t write. 😂
Remember last the job you didn’t get. That one.
“Remember THE LAST JOB you didn’t get” Mr. Dyslexic.
Would Tim Cook hire Jesus?
Jesus was a working-class unmarried Jew from a Middle Eastern conflict zone.
Would Cook hire him for an appropriate position? Absolutely.
Would most of the white Christian Americanists posting here? Doubtful.
Are we talking about the Mexican gardener, the historical Jesus as documented in many non canonical texts from the time, or the fictional popularized western caricature Jesus as corrupted by contemporary political churches?
None would ever be granted an interview by a huge technology corporation.
Historical evidence leads several scholars to believe that the real Jesus was indeed married. He was a semi educated wandering prophet who basically took over his cousin John the Baptist’s sect. He was not just a poor carpenters son, but a popular and well connected Jew, with a brother, James the Just, who was a jewish bishop and a contemporary with Peter in the Nazarene church in Jerusalem following the death of Jesus. Matthew and Mark also referenced Jesus’ other siblings, Jude, Simon, and Joses. Of course so much has been lost in translation from the original Aramaic that Jesus and his gang spoke, decades of time before scriptures were actually written and collected, and hundreds of years of biased political corruption of the Nazarene “jewish christian” sect that the Jew actually led. Nobody called themselves christians until Paul popularized his underground cult in Antioch using Jesus as it’s inspiring martyr. This led to a fallout between Paul’s sect and Jesus’ original Nazarene church of Jerusalem led by Jesus and Peter (the Incident at Antioch).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_centers_of_Christianity#Jerusalem
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James,_brother_of_Jesus#
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Christian
History does indeed matter.
As the holder of a degree in theology, I could point out a plethora of either thinly-sourced speculation or outright misstatements in your comment. “Jewish bishop?”
Not worth the trouble. In religion as in politics, faith is more important than facts.
TXuser, you should offer more details. After all, MDN is mostly now a political rag, why not throw religion into it too? You are one of the few sane civil people here, so please add more to the conversation.
I don’t actually understand why anyone would ask what Jesus would do in a society & time so radically different. But as an interested history buff I did read the wiki articles that History referenced and they are very interesting. Anyone who has played the telephone game knows that the canonized gospels aren’t a complete and accurate picture of the real history. I had no idea how many works have been studied that provide more facts and context than what the New Testament offers. Despite the shortcuts History uses to condense all the speculation and inference that different scholars have made about the true Jesus, I tend to agree that modern Christians are following a fantasy vision created mostly by Paul, a well intended fanatic who nevertheless never met Jesus himself and who didn’t actually get along with Peter and the apostles who actually knew Jesus.
I think Apple wouldn’t have hired Jesus because Jesus had very poor technical skills, detested rich overprivileged people, and had extreme body odor.
This social justice movement and political correctness is now beyond nauseating. We are creating a society which will be parallelized and afraid, or unable to act because of these ridiculous conditions of total equality for everyone. This panacea will never exist.
Tim Cook’s Volksgemeinschaft.
What the Nazis called volksgemeinschaft, libtards call “community organizers.”
wrong, Cook is a closet elitist, pc to the core, risk and leadership adverse, only cares about select groups
I didn’t hear a word Maxine… I mean Denise said. I was just staring at the James Brown wig the whole time. It’s the same hair James Brown had, but he’s obviously not using it anymore.
Ask the families of the Manchester Islamic Terrorist Attacks (and Berlin, Ohio State University, Orlando, Brussels, Paris, and a multitude of other places accounting for 50,853+ injuries and 20,165+ deaths so far at the hands of the Islamic terrorist EVIL LOSERS) how well forced “diversity” is working for them.
The limeys better find them another Winston Churchill…fast.
I can’t wait for Apple to introduce the next commissar of Truth and Transparency.
I hear there is an Umbridge woman asking about a “High Enquisitor” position.
commissar of Truth and Transparency…. ok, that’s funny. Maybe it will be Gore? Or Obama.
How bout the inclusion of a Mac Pro – with Diversity of capabilities within it?
Well, I am happy to see MDN commenters saying the same thing I say. Enough of this mess. Just hire the BEST people for the jobs at Apple no matter how “diverse” they are! Dagnabbedit. They started a whole level of bureaucracy for this mess. Stupid.
Tim’s new Apple.
Apple sacks the guy in charge of automation, but creates a new role of ‘Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity’.
Not saying it’s not needed, but it really shows Tim’s priorities.
It’s certainly not actually releasing/updating Macs.
Heh? They need a VP for this? What happened to ‘hiring the best people for the job regardless of their personal, physical characteristics’? If they need an entire department to ensure that that is happening, I would say they have bigger problems.
Have I said lately that I don’t care for Tim Cook? I don’t care for Tim Cook. I could give two ***** about anyone at Apple’s personal political stances. I am interested in their products. Period. Though I realize it’s a reflection of the larger bat-poop insanity of the Bay, they are turning me off big time the past couple of years with all of this nonsense, and again, people like me have the money to spend, not social justice-ing millennials living in their childhood bedrooms.
recently Tim Cook had Beats release an Ad featuring NBA stars, the NBA where 80% of the players are from ethnic group
The NBA does not reflect the general population stats at all, while TC says that Tech Companies should on the other hand reflect the general population….
you would think Cook would not be happy with an organization like the NBA…
(please Note from all the statements on diversity I’ve read about Apple they’ve not emphasized they are trying to remove bias from hiring QUALIFIED minorities — i.e fire managers who are racists etc (which is fine by me) — but they are saying they want to lift or reduce groups xx% to reflect the general population which is a somewhat different thing, that’s why they release official Apple diversity stats that break out percentages and say this or that number needs to improve )
more to chew on:
Look at the enrolment numbers below which are typical for tech schools:
Caltech UNDERGRAD Enrollment
White 280 29%
Asian 418 42%
Underrepresented
Minority * 154 16%
International 89 9%
Two or More Races ** 38 4%
Unknown 0 0%
GRADUATE
White 445 35%
Asian 144 11%
Underrepresented Minority * 64 5%
International 579 46%
Two or More Races ** 22 2%
Unknown 7 1%
——-
MIT Minority enrolment is 47% and broken down to :
Asian American 1,162 725
Hispanic 671 400
African American 269 88
American Indian or Alaska Native 5 8
Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander 1 0
Total 2,108 1,221
International 10%
There are some exchange students, remainder are White (about 40%).
At the GRAD level there is a sharp drop in USA minority students but a large increase in international students (43% of MIT of which a about half are Asian) .
Note: MIT chart shows undergrad first and then grad stats for Minority enrollment.
Asian American 1,162 725
It seems few people understand the primary reason companies establish a ‘VP of diversity’ with a ‘person of color’ in that position. It’s to prevent a Jesse Jackson style shakedown. Do a search on ‘jesse jackson toyota settlement’ for just one example.