Recently updated on October 24th, 2022 at 04:07 pm
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been appointed into the board of Twitter Inc. alongside Robert Zoellick (previously president of the World Bank) as new independent directors.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is the third woman and first African to ever be appointed unto the board of Twitter.
According to the Executive Chairman of the social media company, Omid Kordestani, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala would be an incredible asset for the company as it strives toward transparency in its global operations.
In the words of Omid Kordestani:
“Ngozi and Bob are distinguished leaders with unparalleled global perspective and policy expertise.
We are confident they will be incredible assets to Twitter as we continue to focus on driving transparency and making Twitter a safer, healthier place for everyone who uses our service.”
In her response, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala stated:
“Twitter is a powerful platform that continues to be used as a strong connector for the global community, and I’m thrilled to be a part of the team.
As we strive to build a better world for tomorrow, Twitter can amplify messages and drive critical conversations around today’s most important issues.
I look forward to partnering with Twitter’s talented directors and leadership team as we work to leverage the power of Twitter for good.”
In a follow up tweet on her official handle, @NOIweala with over 863,000 followers, the Nigerian former minister of finance expressed words of appreciation to the company for the appointment stating:
Twitter, an online news and social networking service has three women on a board of 10 (Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is replacing Marjorie Scardino, the former chief executive of Pearson). Her appointment to the Board of Twitter also means there are now two black women directors, the other being Debra Lee, recently the chief executive of BET Networks.
The company itself has acknowledged it needs to improve diversity in its ranks and has ambitions to increase the percentage of female employees in the company to 43% by 2019 from 38% at the end of 2017. It has also committed to increase the percentage of black and Latino employees to 5%; both groups each represented 3.4% of Twitter’s staff at the end of 2017.
