Oona King Joins Uber from Snap as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer

Former Snap executive Oona King has joined Uber as its Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer.

King who has more than twenty years of experience in leadership positions in the DEI space, left her role as VP of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Snap earlier this month. Her impressive corporate career also includes stints as Google’s Director of Diversity Strategy, YouTube’s Director of Diverse Marketing, and Chief Diversity Officer for British Broadcaster Channel 4.

Who is Oona King?

British-born Oona King is the second Black woman after Diane Abbott to be elected to the British Parliament in 1997. As a Parliamentarian, she changed the law on over 15 occasions, including housing, employment, children’s rights, foreign affairs, and equality policy.

She was an advisor to Prime Minister Gordon Brown on equality, diversity, and faith issues. King was appointed a life peer to the UK House of Lords in 2011 as Baroness King of Bow. 

She took a leave of absence from the Lords to work in the tech industry; her last UK legislation passed in 2016, requires all UK companies with over 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap. Oona’s law has had far-reaching consequences in the UK, Silicon Valley, and beyond.

Working at Snap Inc.

While describing her time at Snap Inc. King wrote on Linkedin, “In my career spanning more than three decades and several industries, companies, and continents, Snap is the place I enjoyed most. It’s where I did some of my best work. It’s where I had the most hope. It’s where I felt the most love.”

The reason for this wasn’t far-fetched. King joined Snap in 2019 at a time when the social media company faced accusations of unequal treatment toward women and perpetuating a sexist culture.

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Snap’s diversity report in 2021 revealed that the company had made slow progress toward overall racial and gender diversity, with 47% of its employees being white and 65% male. Nevertheless, there were some areas of significant progress as it increased the number of women on its board to 50% from 37.5%.

However, Snap’s recent diversity report showed their 2023 data where progress was made, such as increasing the percentage of women in tech roles. In 2022, Snapchat also launched “The Black Creator Accelerator” as a mentorship program to help emerging talent jumpstart their careers.

Before leaving Snap, King and her team set goals within Snap to increase women in leadership by 30%, increase women in tech roles to 25%, and increase US racial and ethnic groups by 20%.

Joining Uber 

King will now join Uber as their Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. She stated her reason for joining the ride-hailing company: “The chance to increase opportunity for so many people is huge. The chance to widen pathways into tech is extraordinary. And the chance to work for a company that commits to civil rights – an area I am deeply passionate about – is a chance I could not miss.”

Last year, in May 2023, Uber suspended its Diversity and Inclusion chief over sessions “Don’t Call Me Karen” about white women’s stereotypes. Bo Young Lee was suspended following increasing discontent amongst Uber employees, many of whom come from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

Reportedly, Black and Hispanic workers felt the session focused too much on the issues around using the word “Karen” as opposed to the harms inflicted on people of color by white people.