Rev. Jesse Jackson has once again traveled to the Puget Sound region to push tech giants to hire more minorities and women, but at Microsoft’s annual shareholders’ meeting, he also gave praise.
As tech jobs have become the key to prosperity for many young people, Jackson has been urging companies such as Microsoft to diversify their ranks. He met with Microsoft Chairman John Thompson and Chief Executive Satya Nadella earlier this week, and at the shareholders' meeting he complimented the company for making progress.
"We applaud the appointment of two women to the board this year to join John and Satya to make Microsoft’s board among the most diverse in the industry," Jackson said.
Jackson also commended Microsoft programs such as one to steer more legal work to minority lawyers, and another effort to use banks led by minorities when the company sells commercial bonds. Nadella said that meeting with Jackson got him thinking about ways to use more minority-run suppliers.
"Maybe there are other things, like advertising and other places, other categories, where we can in fact do the same that we have learned in these two areas," Nadella said.
Jackson says Microsoft still has more work to do on diversity issues, and Nadella agreed.
"We’re not where we need to be, nor is the industry, and we’re deeply committed to making progress," Nadella said.
Just 3.5 percent of Microsoft’s workforce is African-American compared with 13 percent for the U.S. population as a whole.
