New York (CNN Business)Amazon has added Starbucks chief operating officer and former Sam’s Club CEO Rosalind Brewer to its board.
The tech company shared the news in an SEC filing on Monday. Amazon also said it appointed Brewer to the board’s leadership development and compensation committee. Brewer became Starbucks’ COO in October 2017. She is also a director at Starbucks (SBUX).
The former Sam’s Club CEO is the second black woman to have ever served as a director of Amazon. Myrtle Potter, the former president and COO of Genentech, was the first. She served from 2004 to 2009. Brewer is the only person of color currently serving on Amazon’s 10-person board.Read MoreAt Sam’s Club, Brewer was committed to increasing diversity on her team and among her partners. She was CEO of Walmart’s Sam’s Club from 2012 to 2017. She was both the first African American and the first woman to lead a Walmart (WMT) division.
Rosalind Brewer has joined Amazon’s board.”I demand it of my team,” she told CNN’s Poppy Harlow in a 2015 interview. “Every now and then you have to nudge your partners,” Brewer added. “You have to speak up and speak out. And I try to use my platform for that. I try to set an example.”Brewer, who was named to Forbes’ most powerful women in business list last year, started her career at Walmart in 2006 as a regional vice president. Before joining the retailer, Brewer spent 22 years at Kimberly-Clark. She previously served on the boards of Lockheed Martin and Molson Coors Brewing Company.In May, Amazon (AMZN) adopted a shareholder proposal to apply the “Rooney Rule” — the National Football League policy that requires teams to consider minority candidates for coaching and operations-level roles — to its board of directors.
Amazon said the move formalized a process that was already in place. Other tech companies have vowed to increase diversity among their directors.
Source: edition.cnn.com