Boeing dismantles DEI team as pressure builds on new CEO

Boeing Co. has dismantled its global diversity, equity and inclusion department, making it the latest high-profile corporation to make changes to its DEI policy as its new top leader oversees a broader revamp of the company’s workforce.

Staff from Boeing’s DEI office will be combined with another human resources team focused on talent and employee experience, according to people familiar with the matter. Sara Liang Bowen, a Boeing vice president who led the now-defunct department, left the company on Thursday.

“The team achieved so much — sometimes imperfectly, never easily — and dreamed of doing much more still,” Bowen wrote in a farewell post on LinkedIn.

Boeing’s new Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg is streamlining the planemaker’s operations and trimming its executive ranks as part of a broader 10% reduction in headcount. The shift also comes as large U.S. companies face increasing pressure from conservative activists to dismantle or downplay their efforts on diversity, equity and inclusion.

While Boeing’s workforce has traditionally skewed White and male, the company stepped up its efforts to recruit more Black employees and people from other minority groups under former CEO Dave Calhoun, who stepped down in early August.

‘Remains committed’

Anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck, who claims credit for convincing Toyota Motor Corp. and Harley-Davidson Inc. to scale back DEI, said he had reached out to Ortberg and board chair Steve Mollenkopf by e-mail earlier this month to alert them he was considering an online campaign against their diversity programs.

“Boeing remains committed to recruiting and retaining top talent and creating an inclusive work environment where every teammate around the world can perform at their best while supporting the company’s mission,” the planemaker said in a statement.

The company added that it prohibits discriminatory hiring practices and maintains “a merit-based performance system with procedures aimed at encouraging an equality of opportunity, not of outcomes.”

The dismantling of Boeing’s DEI department throws into question the future of its existing programs to promote more diversity among its workforce.

Boeing had promised to increase opportunities for under-represented workers, including Black employees, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in 2020. As part of that effort, the company pledged to increase overall Black employment by 20% by 2025. Boeing was already closing in on that goal last year, as Black employment rose to 7.5% in 2023 — a 17% increase, according to data reported to the U.S. federal government.

Under pressure

Asked by a Texas judge to explain its DEI policy, Boeing reiterated its goals on diversity and inclusion, in an Oct. 25 filing, and said it doesn’t use racial quotas in hiring or promotion decisions.

“An inclusive culture fosters a workplace where employees feel free to speak up and raise concerns — including concerns related to quality and safety — without fear of retaliation,” Boeing told the court.

Boeing has been under pressure for its quality and safety practices following two fatal jet crashes involving its workhorse 737 Max model, and a door failure on an Alaska Air flight in January.

The company has been specifically targeted on social media by billionaire Elon Musk and other conservative activists who blame some of its problems with aircraft quality on its decision to add diversity goals to its 2022 bonus targets. Boeing refocused its incentive plan on quality and safety earlier this year.

Ortberg has vowed to streamline operations and return focus to Boeing’s core planemaking and defense businesses. With the company on pace to burn through $14 billion in cash this year, and facing a further drag on its finances because of a seven-week labor strike, Ortberg is now trying to slash 10% of its workforce in an effort to turn around the troubled aerospace and defense manufacturer.