Amazon board diversity in the spotlight as tech giant agrees to officially adopt ‘Rooney Rule’

Amazon says it is simply formalizing a practice that was already in place, but the company’s new policy pledging to consider “a slate of diverse candidates, including women and minorities” for future openings on its board of directors is being called a key moment in the quest to increase diversity on corporate boards.

“Oftentimes when Amazon acts, others follow,” said Shannon Gordon, the new CEO of theBoardlist, a marketplace with a mission of putting more women on public and private company boards.

Amazon’s decision to formally adopt what’s known as the “Rooney Rule,” announced on Monday, followed a controversy over the board’s initial opposition to a shareholder proposal that sought to require the company to include qualified women and minority candidates on the initial list of candidates for the board. In its original response to the proposal, the company said it already took diversity into account as part of the process, and recommended that shareholders vote against the proposal as a result.

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About the Author: DrStefanieKJohnson

Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Management at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. She holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and is particularly interested in the effects of unconscious biases in the evaluation of women and minorities, with the goal of finding ways to mitigate those biases. Dr. Johnson brings bias to light with an engaging and humorous approach to advanced scientific research, which has earned her numerous accolades and invitations to present her work at meetings around the world, including the White House for a 2016 summit on diversity in corporate America on National Equal Pay Day, and the 2016 Harvard Negotiation and Leadership Conference. She has published over 70 journal articles and book chapters in outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Applied Psychology and The Academy of Management Journal. She has extensive consulting experience and has created and delivered leadership-development training with an emphasis on evidence-based practice. In recognition of her unique research, Dr. Johnson has been awarded nearly three million dollars in external funding to study leadership and create leadership development programs aimed at increasing safety. Media outlets featuring her work include: The Economist, Newsweek, Time, and CNN. Stefanie lives in the Boulder Bubble in Colorado with her Biology Professor husband, two young kiddos, and two old kitties.