30+ Companies Pledge to Follow Recommendations in New Action to Catalyze Tech Report

A new report was released Thursday calling on companies in the tech sector to further their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts by open-sourcing best practices, encouraging collaboration on systemic solutions and increasing accountability to drive change. Action to Catalyze Tech was created by a coalition of 29 DEI experts from academia and the tech industry. The cross-industry working group was convened by the Aspen Institute, the National Center for Women & Information Technology, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Snap Inc., and it spent more than one year aggregating relevant, research-based actions businesses and take to improve DEI outcomes. CEOs and executives from more than 30 tech companies became founding signatories of the ACT report and pledged to hold themselves and their companies accountable on accelerating progress: Airbnb, Apple, Ariel Investments. Cisco, DoorDash, Dropbox, Etsy, Google, Headspace Health, Justworks, LinkedIn, Maven, Netflix, Nextdoor, PwC, Ro, Salesforce, Snap, Spotify, Twitter, Uber, Vimeo, Warby Parker and Wipro, as well as PledgeLA and the companies that form the Alliance for Global Inclusion: Applied Materials, Dell, Intel, Micron Technology, Nasdaq and NTT Data. The commitment covers company-specific strategies centered around the report’s four recommendations: Model and incentivize inclusive leadership, including by recognizing DEI as a business imperative.Operationalize DEI throughout the business by applying a framework to address how to spend money (supplier diversity), design and build products (product inclusion) and think about talent.Share DEI demographic data with a new industry partner, the Tech Equity Accountability Mechanism, incubated by the Aspen Institute, with the goal of creating industrywide standards for reporting such data.Transform future pathways into tech for underrepresented talent, including by helping solve the acute lack of computer science teachers from underrepresented backgrounds. Snap vice president of DEI Oona King, chair of the Catalyze Tech Working Group, said in a statement, “So often, the tech industry moves fast and shoots for the stars, yet when it comes to diversity and inclusion, the industry’s progress has been agonizingly slow. It is long past time for urgency and accountability, and the ACT report sets out a tangible roadmap for companies of all sizes. Collective action is key, and needs everyone in business—from CEOs to interns—to be inspired to act.” Color of Change president Rashad Robinson added, "Big Tech needs major change because the destructive impact of its products on Black people and other exploited and neglected groups needs to end. Diversity can transform the tech sector by transforming the way it does business, and this report is one of very few that makes that connection—demonstrating the impact of diversity on both the business model and workplace equity, not just on public image. Taking diversity seriously, in the way this report does, is a critical step to taking social responsibility seriously. When matched with strong internal policies, faithful enforcement, the right performance incentives and a culture grounded in honesty, transparency and responsibility, this type of approach to diversity can have a profound effect on consumer protection and social impact. The path from real solutions to commitment to real action, implementation and impact is one that every technology corporation should be on." Catalyze Tech will convene the first annual DEI Innovation Summit Nov 3, bringing together CEOs and leaders from signatory companies, DEI experts and advocates to discuss cross-industry alignment and how to put the report’s recommendations into action. It will be virtual, beginning at 9 a.m. PT/noon ET, and viewable free-of-charge here.