OLD Media Moves

No black women panelists at Business Insider’s flagship conference in eight years

November 30, 2017

Posted by Chris Roush

business-insider-logo_full_600Yashar Ali of The Huffington Post writes that there have been no black women among the 683 invited panelists at Business Insider’s main conference “Ignition” in the past eight years.

Ali writes, “In the eight years that the conference has been held, it has featured 683 panelists. That group does not include a single black woman, according to a list of panelists published online by Business Insider and reviewed by HuffPost. It is not clear if some panelists were not listed on the website, and Business Insider spokesman Mario Ruiz did not respond to a HuffPost question on the matter.

“Ruiz also did not reply to multiple messages asking to confirm whether there had been a single black woman on any of the Ignition panels over the years. He told HuffPost the company aims to invite women of color every year, ‘including this year inviting Uber chief brand officer Bozoma Saint John, who was unable to join us.’ Saint John did not respond to a request for comment.

“SiriusXM Radio Director of Progressive Programming Zerlina Maxwell said on Twitter that she was ‘not surprised’ by the lack of black women among panelists.”

Read more here.

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