Apple VP of Diversity and Inclusion Denise Young Smith Leaving the Company

[MacRumors]

Denise Young Smith, Apple's current vice president of diversity and inclusion, plans to leave Apple at the end of this year, reports TechCrunch. Smith was promoted to her position in May of 2017, and prior to that, she was in human resources.

Smith, who has been with Apple for more than 20 years, reports directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Prior to Smith's promotion, Apple had a head of diversity and inclusion, but her role was an executive level role with more responsibility.

Christie Smith, who was with Deloitte for 17 years as a Client Advisory Principal, will be taking over the position. Smith's LinkedIn profile says she has 28 years of experience building and leading high performance teams with expertise in "talent management, analytics, inclusion & belonging, leadership, organizational design, performance management, coaching, change management and culture."

In a statement to TechCrunch, Apple said the company is thrilled to welcome Christie Smith to the team.

"We deeply believe that diversity drives innovation. 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."

Smith will report to Apple's vice president of people Deirdre O'Brien, and has reportedly been speaking with Tim Cook since about a year ago. Apple has been looking for a replacement for Denise Young Smith for the last several months.

After departing Apple, Denise Young Smith will become an executive in residence at Cornell starting this January. She will work with students to "build an early career-stage awareness of inclusive leadership and diverse talent."

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple VP of Diversity and Inclusion Denise Young Smith Leaving the Company

 

[theelysium]

Good, she was a nutter!

 

[Aluminum213]

Very bad look with the lack of diversity at the head positions at Apple

 

[chriscrk]

Cue people complaining and arguing that people should be hired on merit and not race, as if there isn't currently a deep rooted problem regarding diversity that already affects the hiring process!

 

[dannyyankou]

That was short lived. Wonder what went wrong.

 

[freelancing]

While this isn't necessarily relevant, I did meet her once. I used to work at the Apple Store in Plano, TX, which was the 3rd store in the world to open. She flew into Dallas to meet the staff and was introduced to everyone. She seemed nice and was amazingly tall. She seriously has to be at least 7 feet tall. Later in the day, she was walking out of the store and her husband was coming in and he was a head taller than her. She seemed to go out of her way to not tower over people with a gentle grace. She reported directly to Steve Jobs at the time. She was very warm to the staff and down to earth.

 

[nutriousmitten]

The Notch claims yet another Apple Exec.

 

[Rogifan]

Why is she leaving?

 

[modemthug]

It’s absurd that this is even a thing

 

[chucker23n1]

It’s absurd that this is even a thing

Indeed. How is discrimination still a thing in 2017?

But, well, it is. And will be for a while. So we need positions like hers.

 

[Arkanok]

Most useless job title I’ve ever seen.

 

[definitive]

Why does a company even need such a position in the first place? It's like letting the sjw's hold your company hostage.

 

[69Mustang]

Why is she leaving?

Maybe she wants to reach future leaders before they become too jaded.

After departing Apple, Denise Young Smith will become an executive in residence at Cornell starting this January. She will work with students to "build an early career-stage awareness of inclusive leadership and diverse talent."

 

[itsmilo]

Thats a job lol? And i thought „Director of Excellence“ was redic

 

[roland.g]

Apparently she left because she couldn’t stand having REM’s Shiny, Happy People played in her office on repeat for 8 hours a day, every day. Eventually that will drive anyone away.

But seriously, her ambition / resume is to have a fluff job about feelings at work and making sure we all accept everyone. I thought the point was the best products and best performance, not balancing the motley-ness of some color wheel.

 

[thadoggfather]

Maybe she’s tired of Tim’s relentless virtue signaling and selective outrage?

 

[MhzDoesMatter]

But seriously, her ambition / resume is to have a fluff job about feelings at work and making sure we all accept everyone. I thought the point was the best products and best performance, not balancing the motley-ness of some color wheel.

A lot of rational people believe diversity and inclusion can drive performance.

 

[thadoggfather]

A lot of rational people believe diversity and inclusion can drive performance.

People should get jobs based on their skill set and job history, etc

Not their ethnicity, ie something they didn’t have a say in (what heritage they were born into) and which has nothing to do with anything

Forcefully hitting diversity quotas is racist and A delusional progressive agenda

Imo

 

[JoEw]

That was short lived. Wonder what went wrong.

She went off script with the 'narrative'.

http://www.businessinsider.com/apples-vp-diversity-12-white-men-can-be-diverse-group-2017-10

 

[rjohnstone]

A lot of rational people believe diversity and inclusion can drive performance.

It can also hurt it by hiring someone less qualified for there sake of diversity.
I see it all the time at work.
We only take diversity into consideration if the skill sets are relatively equal between the candidates for the job.
Doing it just for the sake of claiming your have a diverse workforce is a disservice to both your employees and your customers.
You want the best person for the position you can find.

 

[LizKat]

People should get jobs based on their skill set and job history, etc

Not their ethnicity, ie something they didn’t have a say in (what heritage they were born into) and which has nothing to do with anything

Forcefully hitting diversity quotas is racist and A delusional progressive agenda

Imo

Teaching people that they may have been applying unconscious bias towards hiring people who are pretty much like themselves is eventually worth the effort. Not everyone gets it, but the ones who do and who stop applying unconscious filters about gender or ethnicity, religion... can help the enterprise become more successful.

 

[roland.g]

A lot of rational people believe diversity and inclusion can drive performance.

Diversity and inclusion can drive innovation by bringing together creativity from a myriad of backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. Performance is not typically a direct result of diversity though. The assumption that they are is incorrect.

 

[1applerules1]

Diversity is a pathetic excuse to make ourself look good. Looks around office*
“Know know what? I need a gay black Mexican Muslim to make myself look good.”

Starts a hiring campaign an only hires specific non job qualified characteristics*

“Hey guys I’m diverse and support equality”

 

[roland.g]

It can also hurt it by hiring someone less qualified for there sake of diversity.
I see it all the time at work.
We only take diversity into consideration if the skill sets are relatively equal between the candidates for the job.
Doing it just for the sake of claiming your have a diverse workforce is a disservice to both your employees and your customers.
You want the best person for the position you can find.

As an HR director, I am often involved in the selection of candidates for the interview process as well as the process itself and the determination of the offer candidate. When looking at resumes, nothing matters beyond skill set, experience and potential. We don’t see color, religion, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, and certainly don’t make assumptions based on gender or age.

However, we don’t select based on those criteria either.

 

[thadoggfather]

Teaching people that they may have been applying unconscious bias towards hiring people who are pretty much like themselves is eventually worth the effort.

But to play devils advocate is that a bad thing, to want like minded people, on basis of goals of the company and general scope of one’s vision?

For example if I’m a hiring manager for Apple, I want to hire someone who loves ios and is a competent fanboy

Not someone who walks the android line and has had an iPhone once In their life for 2 months

But if I went with the latter that would be technically be a form of diversifying the demographic

At the expense of productivity and inexperience with the platform, potentially

—-

Similarly if I’m a white male hiring manager interviewing an Asian female engineer w a broad portfolio and technical skills, and we both really hit it off discussing our mutual travels to Germany, should I rule her out on basis that we share things in common and relate in our travel lives, despite being different gender and ethnicity and her having the skills needed? Should I punish myself or discredit the applicant for finding common ground?

It’s absurd to pre screen candidates on basis of ethnicity as they ask in nearly
All job applications. It’s passing judgment and fitting you in a quota box before you’ve even met someone to speak with

Now If im a white male of course I don’t JUST hire all white males because that too is racist and likely missing the mark on talent just to get people in who share my ethnicity above all else

But I should go where the talent is, not where I need 25 percent Asian 25 percent Indian 25 white and 25 percent black with equal metrics fulfilled to a T, consciously, because those are artificial limitations imposed which could be restricting the talent for fear of being called racist by unhinged sjw's. In that regard diversity is creating unnecessary work when I should
look for affable candidates who also have the skills, and its own form of racism in a different manner

Do ya follow?