adidas executive Karen Parkin will step down following recent protests within the company. Parkin is at the center of the mistreatment employees have been facing at the company’s Portland headquarters.
According to the Wall Street Journal, in 2019 Parkin called the issue of racism “noise” and that adidas had no issues of it. What’s even more ironic is adidas issued a statement on June 9 stating plans to create a more inclusive workforce as well as improved environment involving their hiring practices.
Parkin had this to say:
While we have made progress in many areas, there is much more work to be done. However, it has become clear to me that to unify the organization it would be better for me to retire and pave the way for change. Now is the right time for a new HR leader to take over the function, to seize the opportunity before us and drive forward the pace of change to create a more diverse and inclusive adidas that we can all be proud of.