Martha Lane Fox is second woman named to Twitter's board

The company also brought on Hugh Johnston; they will replace Peter Chernin and Peter Currie

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One of the hallmarks of Jack Dorsey's time as Twitter's CEO has been a bigger commitment to diversity. Twitter has not been up to snuff in that department, and it has pledged to do better.

One area where it was said to be making a real effort was on its board of directors. Now Twitter has finally named two members, only one of which will further that plan to be more diverse.

Twitter has named Martha Lane Fox and Hugh Johnston to its board, it was revealed in a filing with the SEC.

Fox is co-founder and managing director of lastminute.com, and Johnston is Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of PepsiCo. They are both taking their positions immediately.

As a result, Twitter is also losing two of its board members: Peter Currie and Peter Chernin, whose terms were expiring this year and who both requested that they not be nominated again. Both of them will remain on the Board until the conclusion of the annual meeting.

Fox's appointment is the bigger deal here, since she is only the second woman to be appointed to Twitter's board. The first was Marjorie Scardino, former CEO of Pearson, who was appointed in 2013.

Johnston is another white guy, so he doesn't advance that cause, but on Twitter both Dorsey, and Omid Kordestani. Twitter's Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors, promised that more diversity is coming to the board. 

More additions to the board soon, ones that will bring diversity and represent the strong communities on Twitter. This matters & is a must.

— Jack (@jack) April 8, 2016

The entire Board is working to bring greater diversity to our ranks. Watch this space

— Omid Kordestani (@omidkordestani) April 8, 2016

Reports from last year that predicted Currie and Chernin leaving turned out to be accurate; there was also another board member mention, Benchmark VC Peter Fenton, whose term expires next year.

Diversity at Twitter 

Twitter has become a priority for Twitter lately, especially since Dorsey took over last year.

In 2014, the company revealed that it had employees who were 70% male, 59% white, and 29% Asian. In August the company outlined its goals for 2016, which included increasing women to 35% and increasing underrepresented minorities overall to 11%.

"As we look ahead, we see opportunity rather than a challenge: an opportunity to build a platform and a company that will better serve the diverse community on Twitter and the increasingly diverse one at Twitter," the company wrote.

It's a laudable goal, but it has not come without some controversy.

In November, Leslie Miley, a former Twitter engineer who is African American, took to Medium to blast the company for its lack of diversity.

"Twitter’s issues with growth and engagement and the issues with internal diversity are somewhat related. The over-reliance on a limited number of schools and workplaces for talent has caused a type of group think to dominate," Miley wrote. "Any change would be approved by people who all think alike. There was very little diversity in thought and almost no diversity in action."

"With my departure, Twitter no longer has any managers, directors, or VP’s of color in engineering or product management."

He also described an exchange with Alex Roetter, Twitter's SVP of Engineering, in which Roette told him, that while “diversity is important, but we can’t lower the bar.”

Roetter went on Medium to explain those comments, and to apologize.

Then, in December, Twitter went and got a new VP of Diversity and Inclusion, hiring Jeffrey Siminoff, who held a similar position at Apple. The move was controversial, however, given that Siminoff is white and a man, and many felt he may not have the same perspective as those who are routinely discriminated in the workplace.

Even though Twitter has sometimes stumbled on the subject, it is still committed to the cause of making its workplace more diverse. 

(Image source: the-acn.com)