Snowflake CEO Attacked After Saying Diversity Doesn’t Override Merit, Apologizes to Woke Mob Days Later

The CEO of Snowflake Inc., Frank Slootman faced controversy over his comments on diversity in the workplace in an interview with Bloomberg last week. Snowflake, Inc. is a cold computing-based data warehouse company based in Montana. Slootman said that his company needs to focus more on merit when hiring and promoting employees and less on diversity goals, even though diversity-biased promotions/hires may boost opportunities for workers. Slootman also said that other CEOs would agree with him, at least privately.

During the interview, Slootman says, “We’re actually highly sympathetic to diversity but we just don’t want that to override merit. If I start doing that, I start compromising the company’s mission literally. From my own experience talking to many CEOs privately, we are of the same mind, just publicly they find it hard to be that way. We need to come to a more moderated, real place. There’s really no room for the hysteria and the outrage. We’re CEOs, we run companies, we have to produce results for our employees and our partners and our investors and our customers. We can’t get distracted in that mission. When you do, you might as well hang it up and let somebody else do it.”

Diversity shouldn’t “override” merit in hiring decisions, says Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman. And he tells @emilychangtv other CEOs agree with this privately, despite what they may say publicly https://t.co/5sCjrZEhBJ pic.twitter.com/FFTWJzpRS3

— Bloomberg Technology (@technology) June 3, 2021

This statement provides a stark contrast when compared to the rest of corporate America. Diversity in the workplace has become a large, prominent goal of many large corporations. The CEO of Alphabet, Inc. (the parent company of Google, Android, Youtube, and others), Sundar Pichai has said that by 2025, they aim to have 30% of their corporate leadership consist of what they claim are underrepresented groups such as Black, LatinX, Native American and female groups.

Multiple CEOs jumped to attack Slootman and his remarks. CEO and co-founder of Twilio Inc., Jeff Lawson published a whole series of tweets disagreeing with Slootman’s remarks.

Watch the interview, I think it’s very misguided. I respect Frank and Snowflake, but this is a bad take.

Building a diverse company, where every talented person, regardless of background, can contribute and be successful is not a “distraction”… it’s a key job of a CEO.

— Jeff Lawson (@jeffiel) June 4, 2021

The result of having a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture is more customer value, more engaged employees & increased shareholder value. That is based on ample longitudinal studies across many industries.

— Jeff Lawson (@jeffiel) June 4, 2021

Founder of the Project Institute, Ellen Pao, accused Slootman of having racial bias and also attacked him on Twitter.

Good luck hiring with your bias against change. It’s not just the “liberals of Silicon Valley” who care about a diverse workforce. 76% of employees and job seekers called it important and 79% of new graduates called it “very important” https://t.co/9E0wJkupMz https://t.co/HJ9pEJwRuj pic.twitter.com/YMQz5rJx1d

— Ellen K. Pao (@ekp) June 4, 2021

After outrage ensued, Slootman released a statement apologizing to all that he may have hurt in his interview. Slootman labeled “racism, discrimination and prejudice” as “still common in our society.” He also affirmed that diversity, equity, and inclusion are, “important pillars that are central in what we do as a company.”

Stay tuned to Media Right News for any updates.