Jesse Jackson applauds new HP boards as tech’s ‘most diverse’

When Hewlett-Packard splits into two companies Nov. 1, activists say it will have the most diverse board of directors in the tech world after appointing four African Americans to its new panels Wednesday.

Last year, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push organization found that among 189 directors serving on the boards at 20 leading tech companies, only three were African American, one was Latino and 36 were women.

“HP is taking not just a small step but a leap forward, setting the pace for the tech industry that will do well to follow their example,” Jackson said.

Leslie Brun, chairman and chief executive officer of Sarr Group, and Pamela Carter, former president of Cummins Distribution, are the African Americans named to the 13-member board of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a company that will include HP’s traditional IT services and enterprise cloud computing.

Two other African Americans — Stacy Brown-Philpot, chief operating officer of TaskRabbit, and Stacey Mobley, a former senior vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel at DuPont — were named Wednesday to the 12-member board of HP Inc., which focuses on personal computers and printers.