Apple Stakeholders Demand Diversity Among Executive

Investor claims that Apple lacks diversity among top executives and directors

As per a report by Bloomberg, Apple Inc. is likely to experience a tough time since a stakeholder has highlighted a major issue that is seaming in the structure of the company. The shareholder has issues with the company’s higher executives lacking diversity. A resolution has been submitted by an investor according to which there is a dire need of placing the “people of color” in positions as executives and directors.

However, the company has defended itself by putting forward its stance to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As per the tech giant, this is an initiative to “micromanage” and it need not be included in the proposal regarding the proxy material. The company also cleared that they have been trying hard to have a fair share of minorities on board, but it does not have the power to make the recruits take the offer they make.

Back on December 11, 2015, the SEC drafted a letter and sent to the Apple iPhone manufacturer in which is claimed that the reasoning was not that sound. Moreover, it is the company’s choice to decide if it needs to bring the issue to the 2016 annual meeting. It needs to be noted that the SEC can actually lead to the enforcement if the matter is not added to the proxy.

The stakeholder who is concerned about the lack of diversity at the company is Mr. Antonio Avian Maldonado II- who present owns 645 Apple stocks. According to him, the board is “little but too vanilla”. The reason why he was forced to think this way was when he was showing the photographs of the directors at Apple, his teenage son questioned why almost everyone in the board was white.

The Silicon Valley In general has been putting in a lot of effort to have a substantial number of minorities at workplaces. Activists have also been trying hard to get women and minorities in the Silicon Valley. The women and minorities are an important asset of the corporate world in the United States that shouldn’t go unattended due to lack of diversity.

2016 is expected to be a crucial year for the corporate world and it will be amazing if the Silicon Valley can sort of the issues pertaining to gender discrimination and equality for minorities. The annual stakeholders meeting which has not been scheduled yet will govern the course of future decisions made by the company in the fiscal year of 2016.

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