Warner Bros. Discovery North America DEI Executive Karen Horne Exits
30.06.2023 - 22:07
/ deadline.com
Karen Horne, who led led Warner Bros. Discovery Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for North America, is leaving the company amid a raft of layoffs and major restructuring since the merger. Executive said Horne’s departure was not part of the broader staff retrenchment but a rethinking of the DEI division.
DEI head Asif Sadiq announced the departure of the well-respected, Burbank-based Horne in an email to staff. Last September, WBD revamped its DEI team under Sadiq will head the group. Horne, SVP for North America was a key leader. Three other positions Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific reported in to him. That move came after merged company has faced criticism in its early going over its decision to appoint a slate of entirely white, male directors to its board and a relative lack of diversity in its top exec ranks.
Last year, Horne was put in charge of Warner Bros. Discovery’s popular directors program. That came after the company initially shuttered it, before making a quick u-turn.
The company had revealed in October that the initiative, which been lauded for their inclusion of diverse voices into the television industry, was being shuttered at Warner Bros. Television, where they have resided, as part of a massive slew of cuts. However, later that day, it announced that it would, in fact, bring it back, but it would be housed within WBD’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion unit, under Horne, rather than through Warner Bros. Television.
She joined then-WarnerMedia in March 2020, having previously been at NBC Entertainment and Universal Television Studios as Senior Vice President, Programming Talent Development and Inclusion.
The LA Times broke the story.
READ THE MEMO:
Dear DE&I Team,
It has