Barely a month into her position, the new CEO of sharing-economy-services company TaskRabbit, Stacy Brown-Philpot, has implemented a diversity and inclusion plan for TaskRabbit in cooperation with the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).
As the first company to present its African American Inclusion Plan in conjunction with the CBC’s TECH 2020 initiative, TaskRabbit is formalizing efforts to make diversity and inclusion of underrepresented individuals a priority.
TaskRabbit’s African American Inclusion Plan consists of four primary initiatives focused on generating change and increasing the number of blacks in the technology industry:
- Increase representation of African American talent in the company from 11% to 13% by the end of 2016 in order to reflect the population in the United States.
- Retain African American employees by developing a supportive, diversity-friendly culture.
- Increase awareness and educate employees on the importance of diversity and understanding unconscious bias to support the recruitment and retention of African Americans.
- Strengthen awareness around the importance of increasing diversity within the technology industry by sharing the initiatives and results of their efforts with the public.
“Building a strong, diverse, and inclusive community is key to any sector’s growth, and teaming up with CBC TECH 2020 is a natural step for TaskRabbit to re-confirm our commitment to being an open, forward-thinking and innovative organization in Silicon Valley,†said Stacy Brown-Philpot, CEO at TaskRabbit.
“We’re proud of our efforts around diversity where our approach has always been to partner and build relationships with groups that can help us connect with underrepresented candidates, mentor those candidates once they join the team, and support our employees to maintain an active presence in the community. This plan recognizes TaskRabbit’s diversity as a huge asset aiming to break down barriers while shining a light on ways to expand the great talent of black individuals.â€
Brown-Philpot stepped into the role as TaskRabbit COO in 2013. Since joining, she made it her personal mission to increase diversity at TaskRabbit and has grown ethnic diversity 3x, and more than doubled the number of females.
Prior, she worked for nine years in various management roles at Google before taking a position as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Google Ventures in 2012.
She was the first COO for TaskRabbit, an online service matching freelancers to consumer demands such as handiwork, child and pet sitting, cleaning services, and more.
With the promotion to CEO, Brown-Philpot becomes one of the most powerful (and few) black executives in Silicon Valley and in the whole of the technology industry.