Twitter Names Black Woman to VP of Diversity

Candi Castleberry-Singleton (Twitter)

Candi Castleberry-Singleton has been named vice president of inclusion and diversity at Twitter. Castleberry-Singleton replaces Jeffrey Siminoff who resigned in February.  Castleberry-Singleton has a long track record in the field of diversity and inclusion. Previously she worked at some of America’s top technology companies including Motorola where she was vice president of global inclusion and diversity. At Sun Microsystems she led the Global Inclusion Center of Expertise. She also worked in sales and marketing at Xerox.

In a statement Castleberry-Singleton said, “I’m so excited to join the team at Twitter to lead inclusion and diversity efforts for employees and the Twitter community. I look forward to bringing what I’ve learned to Twitter.”

Twitter, like many tech companies, have faced criticism for the lack of diversity in its workforce. Twitter has been hit with high turnover in its diversity leadership position. The company has seen three diversity chiefs depart since 2015.

Castleberry-Singleton takes over a position in a company that is popular among African-Americans.  Pew Research reported that  28 percent of African-American and Latino Internet users use Twitter compared to 20 percent of Internet users who are white use it.

Twitter is the second major tech company to turn to an African-American woman to solve their diversity issues. Recently Apple named a black woman, Denise Young Smith, to head it’s diversity efforts.

Castleberry-Singleton is the founder of the Dignity and Respect Campaign an organization that focuses on providing open and respectful workplaces for all ethnicities.

A native of Los Angeles, Castleberry-Singleton possess extensive educational credentials with an MBA from Pepperdine University and a bachelor’s degree in legal studies from UC Berkeley. She also completed the Stanford University Executive Human Resources program.