- Amazon recently changed some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion websites and halted some programs.
- An Amazon Web Services VP said in a meeting in late January that Amazon was still committed to DEI.
- Other firms such as Meta and Target recently pulled back on DEI efforts.
An Amazon executive told employees during a recent internal meeting that the company remained committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The tech giant has changed some of its websites about DEI and halted some programs. That prompted some employees to ask about this ahead of the meeting in late January with Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec, the vice president of technology at Amazon Web Services.
The question about DEI received the highest interest among employees, Tomsen Bukovec said, according to a meeting transcript obtained by Business Insider.
The AWS executive said she wasn't aware of the changes to Amazon's DEI websites. She said she asked internally to ensure that Amazon was still committed to its DEI programs. The feedback she received was "no change," she said.
"We are not pulling back on DEI initiatives. I looked at all the changes. We are not making any changes to any of the benefits," Tomsen Bukovec added. "There's no change to the commitment, but we didn't roll it out that well."
Tomsen Bukovec, who's been at AWS for almost 15 years, is a senior, high-profile executive at the cloud division. She often speaks on behalf of the company at public events and was one of the speakers at last year's re:Invent conference. In 2023, Tomsen Bukovec was included in BI's AI 100 list.
Other companies, including Meta, Target, and McDonald's, have pulled back or ended DEI programs in recent months as pressure from conservative activists and Donald Trump's administration increased. At the same time, other companies, such as JPMorgan and Costco, are continuing support for DEI.
Media reports in recent months have suggested Amazon's approach to DEI may be changing.
In December, Candi Castleberry, Amazon's VP of inclusive experiences and technology, said the company was shutting down several "outdated" DEI programs to focus on those with "proven outcomes," according to Bloomberg. Amazon also recently removed or changed some words about its DEI benefits on some of its websites, The Information previously reported.
During the late January staff meeting, Tomsen Bukovec said Amazon consolidated some words and dropped some paragraphs from its DEI websites and blogs. But the company "didn't change the underlying capabilities that people can do, and we did not change any of the commitment that we have to the programs," she said.
She specifically addressed a transgender benefit that Amazon offers and said, "We are not making any changes to that."
"We just made some changes to the words, and then I think we deprioritized one or two programs that were not making much of a difference anyway," she added.
Amazon's spokesperson declined to comment on the specifics of this story but shared a link to the company's policy positions that show its commitment "to creating a diverse and inclusive" culture.
The spokesperson also shared a copy of Castleberry's December email that said, "We remain dedicated to delivering inclusive experiences for customers, employees, and communities around the world."
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