After Discrimination Charges, Pinterest Appoints Andrea Wishom as third Woman on its Board

Pinterest has appointed on its board a black female executive following allegations of mistreatment by two former employees. In addition to the racial charges, a former female executive accused the company of having a discriminatory and misogynistic work environment.

New Appointments On Its Board

The company appointed Andrea Wishom, the first black member and third woman on its board of directors. Wishom is a president at Skywalker Holdings and former executive vice president at Harpo Productions. She is also the ninth member of the social media company's board. The other women on the board is Leslie J. Kilgore. Leslie is a former chief marketing officer at Netflix.The third one on the board is Michelle Wilson, formerly at Amazon.

“For the past few months, the board has been meeting with many great candidates, and Andrea stood out for several reasons,” Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann said in a statement. “She’s an expert in creating positive and inspirational content for global audiences, and a passionate advocate for building a company culture of respect, integrity, inclusion and support." He also added, "Andrea has spent her career outside of Silicon Valley and has a vision for reimagining the board/employee relationship.”

What You Should Know

• Andrea Wishom has been appointed as the first black and third woman on Pinterest's board of directors.
• The other woman on board are  Leslie J. Kilgore, former chief marketing officer at Netflix, and Michelle Wilson, formerly at Amazon.
• The company's employees started a campaign #changeatpinterestpetition.

Pinterest In Trouble

Pinterest's reputation was maligned recently. Two of its employees on its policy team went public with reports of unfair pay, racism and retaliation. One of the former employees was Ifeoma Ozoma, who tweeted at the time that her experience at Pinterest was "sullied by the racism, gas-lighting, and disrespect."  The other employee was Aerica Shimizu Banks. Both Ozoma and Banks served on the policy team for the photo and video sharing site. They registered their complaint with California Department of Fair Employment and Housing regarding pay inequity and race discrimination, the Washington Post reported.

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Adding to the Pinterest's distress, last week its former chief operating officer Francoise Brougher  sued the company. She complaint against the alleged gender bias and wrongful termination. The suit is filed in California. Brougher mentioned in the suit that she was offered a "less favourable pay structure" than her male peers.

As a Black woman, seeing @Pinterest’s middle of the night “Black employees matter” statement made me scratch my head after I just fought for over a full year to be paid and leveled fairly… 2/ pic.twitter.com/4nJ7P2Hf0o

— Ifeoma Ozoma (@IfeomaOzoma) June 15, 2020

Ozoma, on Monday, told USA TODAY that the company's appointment of a Black executive to the board is "meaningless." She added, "I hope that she is paid fairly, and not the way that I and other Black women at the company have not been paid fairly and have been dismissed."

Wishom said in a statement: “I want to thank the entire Pinterest board for this opportunity. In this unprecedented moment in time, I’m excited to join the board of a global company that has provided exploration and inspiration to so many, including myself. I’ve been a Pinner since 2011 and having a one-of-a-kind platform that helps us achieve our goals and dreams is needed now more than ever.”

Sanskriti Tiwari is an intern with SheThePeople