TIMELINE
April 10 IBM shifted its supplier diversity goals away from race and gender to focus on all small businesses and veteran-led companies and stopped linking executive compensation to diversity hiring goals, Bloomberg reported, citing an internal memo that detailed the “inherent tensions in practicing inclusion.”
April 10 Gannett, the United States’ largest newspaper publisher, said it will no longer publish diversity data and removed references to diversity from its corporate website, Nieman Lab reported, citing a company spokesperson who referenced Trumps DEI executive order.
April 8 Constellation Brands Inc., which brews Corona and Modelo Especial beer, renamed its DEI team to “inclusive culture,” reframed its supplier diversity goals to focus on all small businesses and will no longer participate in Human Rights Campaign external surveys, Bloomberg reported.
March 26 UnitedHealth Group removed webpages dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion and instead adopted language like “culture of belonging,” TechCrunch first reported (Company spokesperson Tyler Mason told the outlet it seeks to “comply with existing and emerging laws while striving to support what is best for the communities we serve”).
March 22 The MLB told the AP it removed references to diversity from its careers site to ensure it complies with federal law, but said the organization’s “values on diversity remain unchanged.”
March 5 Victoria’s Secret is reevaluating a supplier diversity goal and halting a goal to promote a certain percentage of Black workers, a Victoria’s Secret representative told Bloomberg, a shift for the company that made investments in DEI throughout the 2020s following a reported workplace harassment scandal as well as controversy and boycotts over an alleged lack of body type diversity among its models.
Feb. 28 State Street, which installed the famous “Fearless Girl” statue in Manhattan in 2017, previously expected boards in major indexes to be 30% female and S&P 500 companies to have at least one racial minority director, but these requirements appear to have been dropped in the company’s new proxy voting guidance published on its website, which the company told Reuters was “to ensure alignment with global protocols and local laws and regulations.”
Feb. 27 Warner Bros. Discovery said in a staff memo it remains committed to building an “inclusive team” but would rename its DEI programs to simply “inclusion,” cease participating in external diversity surveys and implement a “uniform and consistent application process” across all of its development programs, multiple outlets reported (the company still reportedly said: “Our success absolutely depends on having a team that’s truly diverse”).
Feb. 27 Goldman Sachs, weeks after axing a diversity requirement for companies it takes public, dropped a section about “diversity and inclusion” from an annual filing released Thursday, which CEO David Solomon said was to “reflect developments in the law in the U.S.,” Reuters reported.
Feb. 26 Paramount will no longer use diversity targets—tied to race or gender—in hiring, and the company has begun removing DEI language from its website, the New York Times and other outlets reported, citing a company memo in which Paramount executives cited Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders.
Feb. 25 Bank of America will end “aspirational” targets for diversity hiring and replaced the word “diversity” with “talent” and “opportunity” in an annual report, Bloomberg reported.
Feb. 25 BlackRock cut references to DEI in its latest annual report, three years after the company’s CEO Larry Fink said the company “must embed DEI into everything we do.”
Feb. 20 Citigroup will rename its “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Talent Management” team to “Talent Management and Engagement,” and it will end its diversity hiring goals, Bloomberg reported.
IBM Reportedly Walks Back Diversity Policies, Citing ‘Inherent Tensions’: Here Are All The Companies Rolling Back DEI Programs
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/04/11/ibm-reportedly-walks-back-diversity-policies-citing-inherent-tensions-here-are-all-the-companies-rolling-back-dei-programs/