Boeing Dismantles DEI Department
Ariel Zilber, New York Post, November 1, 2024
Boeing reportedly dismantled its global diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) department as part of an overhaul of its operations ordered by the company’s new top executive — becoming the latest major company to ditch the controversial initiative.
The aerospace giant — which was slammed by tech mogul Elon Musk for prioritizing DEI over safety and quality controls after a near-catastrophic blowout during an Alaska Airlines flight — said staff from its DEI office would be absorbed into another human resources team focused on talent and employee experience, according to Bloomberg News.
Sara Liang Bowen, a company vice president who was put in charge of the now-defunct DEI unit, left the company on Thursday.
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A conservative influencer who has launched viral campaigns that forced other high-profile companies — including John Deere, Harley Davidson and Jack Daniels — to scrap their DEI policies took credit for Boeing’s overhaul.
Robby Starbuck said he reached out to Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg and board chair Steve Mollenkopf by email last month to let them know he would wage an online campaign against their DEI policies.
“Our campaigns are so effective that we’re getting some of the biggest corporations on earth to change their policies without me even posting a video first just from the fear they have of being the next company we expose,” Starbuck wrote on X on Thursday.
He added that the “landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality.”
Musk had called out Boeing in the wake of the mid-air incident in January over a filing that appeared to show the company two years ago began using DEI goals as incentives for executive compensation after previously focusing solely on safety and quality controls.
“Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? That is actually happening,” Musk said on X.
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