Tyi McCray joins Pinterest as Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity

Today we’re announcing Tyi McCray as our new Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity at Pinterest. A seasoned leader in both the private and academia sectors, Tyi joins Pinterest to lead its strategy and programme development in fostering an inclusive and diverse culture and company.

As we strengthen our commitment to a culture of inclusion, the role of Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity has now moved within the executive management team, and Tyi reports directly to Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO at Pinterest. Since 2016, this has been an important role in building and leading the programmes, policies and teams that help to make a more inclusive and diverse Pinterest.

From Creators across the world to the content on our platform, we are committed to making Pinterest a more inclusive place. That means purposely building a company and product for everyone, reflecting our global audience of over 400 million Pinners that turn to Pinterest each month for inspiration to create a life that they love. 

‘It's impossible to overstate the magnitude of change that our world has undergone this year. As a diversity and inclusion professional, my line of work in particular has evolved and – though our work was always absolutely pivotal – the vital nature of what we do has come into focus more now than ever before. In my short time working with the Pinterest team and Ben, I've seen a real acknowledgement about the hard work and commitment that will be needed from all of us to get us to where we want to be as an organisation. I’m thrilled to join Pinterest at this critical point for our society and our company.’ – Tyi McCray, Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity at Pinterest

‘We’re very excited to welcome Tyi to Pinterest. She is a proven and compassionate leader who will be a huge asset in advancing the significant work ahead of us. I look forward to working with her to build a culture where all people, regardless of their backgrounds, are treated fairly and feel valued for the unique perspectives that they bring to Pinterest.’ – Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO at Pinterest

In June, we announced that we had increased our diverse slate requirement for recruiting as we work to improve representation, especially at senior levels. We set clear goals to increase the representation of content that we show to Pinners, and announced an audit that is being conducted by outside experts to help us to take additional actions on our workplace culture. Over the past months, we’ve gained momentum on cultural action plans that will increase inclusion and diversity at Pinterest in our employee experience, product, policies, processes and community. 

Community rebuild programme

We worked with our employee resource group Blackboard to create a ‘Community rebuild programme’ as a resource for minority-owned businesses to help them to adapt to the new way of operating due to the pandemic. 

As part of the programme, we are offering support, including financial assistance such as paid media, creative resources, account management, and education about how to become successful on Pinterest and generate more exposure for their businesses. We have already partnered with some minority-owned organisations, such as The Social Club, The Village Market, The Town Experience and The Gathering Spot, and we expect to add more in the coming months so that we create a seamless way for businesses to receive support and resources in order to successfully use Pinterest to establish a digital presence by creating high-quality content and widespread exposure.

A more inclusive product 

We hear from Pinners that they want to feel represented and discover inspiration relevant to their interests, so we’ve been rolling out features to customise beauty searches by skin tone. We recently expanded our skin tone range feature to five additional countries. The design of this feature has also been refreshed so that people can easily filter beauty-related results by skin tone right from the search results page. In addition, the quality of the technology has also improved, and the number of beauty and fashion Pins where a skin tone can be identified has quadrupled. 

Through her strong leadership and strategic mindset, Tyi is the ideal fit to drive momentum for creating an inclusive and diverse Pinterest culture and company.