Apple has hired Cynthia Bowman, who until recently served as Bank of America’s global head of diversity, inclusion and corporate social responsibility, as its vice president of inclusion and diversity.
“Cynthia is an accomplished leader in her field and is deeply committed to the work we’re doing to advance inclusion and diversity at Apple,” a spokesperson for the tech giant told Bloomberg on Tuesday.
Bowman spent 17 years at Bank of America, joining in 2007 as a senior vice president for leadership development, according to her LinkedIn profile. She added diversity and inclusion to that title in 2013, and became the bank’s chief diversity and inclusion officer three years later. The bank added corporate social responsibility to Bowman’s purview last year, according to LinkedIn. Before joining Bank of America, Bowman held roles at Accenture and AT&T.
Bowman is set to replace Barbara Whye, who is retiring this fall, Apple said.
“She and Cynthia are working together to successfully transition this vitally important work,” the company told Bloomberg.
Bowman becomes the fourth executive to serve as Apple’s diversity chief since the position was established in 2016.
The tech company has had mixed success at diversifying its workforce. It doubled — to 30% — the proportion of its U.S. employees who are Asian between 2014 and 2022, when statistics were last updated. In the same time frame, the percentage of Latino employees jumped from 11% to 15%. Black employees accounted for 9% of Apple’s U.S. workforce in 2022, compared with 7% a decade ago. Women made up 35% of Apple’s global workforce in 2022, according to the company’s website.
Bowman will report to Carol Surface, Apple’s chief people officer.
