What He Said: We Agree With Vivek on the Twitter Board Fiasco

Controversy is raging over Twitter’s all male board. Where do we stand? Vivek Wadhwa says it best.

By Jessica Stillman (Editor, Women 2.0)

We probably don’t have to tell you this, but at Women 2.0 we’re big fans of corporate boards that reflect the diversity of the customers they serve. And that, naturally, includes Twitter. The current uproar over the company’s monochromatic, all-male board began with a critical New York Times article quoting Stanford and Singularity academic Vivek Wadhwa and picked up speed when the company’s CEO shot himself in the foot with this inflammatory tweet:

But Wadhwa isn’t the type to slink away following an insult. He responded with a passionate and cogent argument for why it’s so important for public boards to break out of the boy’s club mode. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, so check out the video below for a dose of sanity when it comes to corporate boards.

And Wadhwa isn’t the only intelligent voice articulating the case for more inclusive boards. As Nilofer Merchant told Valleywag, “This to me is not a gender issue, it’s an innovation issue. That’s the cost to Twitter.” Check out the interesting article for more on the situation not just at Twitter but in the tech industry as a whole.

What do you think about this controversy?

Photo by Seabamirum / Flickr.

Jessica Stillman (@entrylevelrebel) is an editor at Women 2.0 and a freelance writer with interests in unconventional career paths, generational differences, and the future of work. She writes a daily column for Inc.com and has blogged for CBS MoneyWatch, GigaOM and Brazen Careerist, among others.