Pinterest Hires Diversity Chief

Pinterest has made a pivotal step forward towards its goal of employing more women and minorities.

Today, the aspirational image-collecting website announced Candice Morgan as its first diversity chief. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday (Jan. 6) that Morgan previously worked at Catalyst Inc., a nonprofit research group that tracks women in business, for nearly a decade. In her new position, she will report to Pinterest’s head of recruiting.

As USA Today points out, Pinterest’s hiring of Morgan is notable in part because the company — at least in terms of staff size — is on the smaller end compared to tech giants like Facebook and Google but, at the same time, is one of the most valuable venture-backed startups. This high-profile hire could, the outlet attests, have a positive influence on other small companies in the space in bringing women and minorities into their ranks.

“Our vision at Pinterest is to build a product that inspires everyone. To make this happen, we need to understand the perspectives and needs of people around the world,” Pinterest Cofounder Evan Sharp said in a statement shared by USA Today. “Candice is a critical addition to our vision and will help build the programs and teams we need to reach our creative potential as a company.”

The WSJ story notes that Pinterest’s business team presently consists of two-thirds women, but as of July, females only represented 21 percent of the tech staff, 19 percent of the engineering staff and 16 percent of leadership positions. At the same point in time, only 8 percent of Pinterest’s employees were not white or Asian, with black or Hispanic employees filling only 5 percent of business roles, less than 2 percent of engineering roles and none in leadership positions.

Today, the company (the outlet goes on to share) is halfway to its previously set diversity hiring goals, which include raising the hiring rate for full-time engineering roles to 30 percent women and 8 percent underrepresented minorities.

Morgan, who will be responsible for seeing that Pinterest fulfills those goals, spoke highly to USA Today of the company’s approach to increasing diversity.

“Pinterest is willing to experiment and really sees that no one is getting it 100 percent right and there is no one solution,” she told the outlet. “Pinterest knows to find solutions that work for Pinterest; it has to be innovative.”