Adidas’ global head of human resources will retire immediately after American workers at the German sportswear company have demanded his departure over comments allegedly insensitive to race. Karen Parkin told the company’s board of directors on Tuesday that she will be leaving so someone else can “create a more diverse and inclusive Adidas that we can all be proud of.”
“It has become clear to me that, to unify the organization, it would be better for me to withdraw and pave the way for change,” Parkin said in a statement.
A group of 13 Adidas employees in the US had called for Parkin’s resignation this month, according to Footwear News. Workers reportedly pointed to an incident during a company meeting in Boston last year in which Parkin dismissed concerns about Adidas’s treatment of employees of color as “noise” and said there was no need for corrective action. employees who attended the meeting said the trade publication said. .
Black employees working for Adidas’ North American headquarters in Portland, Oregon, reportedly organized a meeting earlier this month, accusing the company of marginalizing workers of color and pushing for change. Since then, Adidas is committed invest $ 120 million in black communities over the next four years and fill 30% of your current vacancies in the United States with someone black or Hispanic.
Parkin joined Adidas in 1997 as UK sales director, while also working in customer service, business development and supply chain roles during her 23 years with the company. She became director of global human resources in 2015.
Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted, who was named interim head of human resources, said in a statement that Parkin was instrumental in making sure that 60,000 Adidas employees around the world have been safe around the world. coronavirus pandemic.
“She has played an important role in our approach in the past few weeks as to how we move forward as a company to combat racial inequality and build a more diverse Adidas,” said Rorsted.
Adidas does not publicly disclose the racial breakdown of its workforce. But of the approximately 1,700 employees at its headquarters in the U.S., less than 5% identify as black, according to internal employment figures obtained in 2019 by the New York Times.
.
