The past days and weeks have shone a spotlight on the tragic injustices in our society. Our nation is recognizing and rebelling against a long history of systemic racism. We’ve ignored it for far too long. Willful apathy is the only way we could have reached this point. Now is the time to stand with the Black community. Cloudera is committing to deliberate and decisive action to address inequality in our workplaces and communities.
I’m ready to do my part. And so is Cloudera.
Following the horrific news about George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, I called an emergency meeting with our leadership team to address how we are going to change the way we approach and invest in equality at Cloudera. We agreed that it’s past time to move from lip-service to real action on diversity, equality, and inclusion.
Starting with the basics.
I, and my leadership team, commit to invest further in our own diversity, equality, and inclusion education.
We formed an Equality Committee to help shine a bright light into the areas of the company where inequality is at play. As an initial step, the committee proposed several major initiatives that will help Cloudera set the foundations for impact. Our next step is to determine accountability and staffing to drive these key efforts.
These are the first set of initiatives we are taking to address bias and inequality at Cloudera:
We are creating a position for a Chief Diversity Officer who will be an important contributor to our leadership team.
We are revealing our diversity and inclusion numbers to hold ourselves accountable for making the change. In July, we will release our numbers and benchmark goals alongside our plan for addressing the actions we will take to make our company culture more diverse and inclusive.
We are creating a Technology for Equality (TeQ) Consortium to provide an open digital platform enabling individuals and groups to address racial bias and inequality using data, analytics, AI, and open source technology tools.
We are establishing a Center of Excellence (CoE) that will be an incubator developed alongside industry partners with the goal of sponsoring an educational workspace for underrepresented high school minorities. This workspace will train and groom future industry leaders. In addition, Cloudera will sponsor Scholarships, Internships, and Adopt-A-School Programs to deepen community involvement.
We are operationalizing our recruiting, internal mentorship, continuing education, and coaching opportunities in an effort to provide clear paths towards leadership positions for underrepresented groups at Cloudera. One of our first actions will be to create two Cloudera Scholarship Funds benefiting under-represented minorities.
We are examining and addressing any wage gaps between employees who are comparable in years of experience, role, and responsibilities to make sure we are in compliance across all levels. Discrepancies will be corrected.
And we are committing to regular financial contributions and corporate matching opportunities for non-profit organizations dedicated to leveling the educational and economic playing field for our under-represented communities.
We are done with lip service.
As CEO, I commit to investing in my own education and exhibiting the characteristics I expect to see out of the Cloudera leadership team, our employees, and our customers: tolerance, understanding, inclusiveness, and non-violence. Anything less is simply unacceptable.
Lastly, I want to personally thank the members of the Equality Committee for their partnership, leadership, and dedication. Your work does not go unseen.
Austin Channing Brown, author of I’m Still Here, recently said, “The work of anti-racism is becoming a better human to other humans.”
We accept the calling.
Editor's Choice
Really far more than just words, real actions! Proud to be a Clouderian!
AWESOME!!!!!!
Proud that my company is decisively taking action.
Good actions /Great commitments! Proud to be a Clouderian!
All these initiatives seem more like a reaction to the unfortunate recent incidents but are welcome. Rob, what we can do here is institutionalize the diversity and inclusion culture and not view it as a compliance. As they say, we need to respect the law in letter and spirit. I myself come from a disadvantaged section and I know immediately when I confront inequality or discrimination. The emotions are familiar and so are the experiences. Congratulations for launching a slew of measures aimed at bring a more diverse and equal workplace.