Activision Blizzard is still mired in legal troubles, unionization efforts in its workforce, and fractious investors, but it’s nevertheless taking some small steps to at least look like it’s trying to combat its myriad problems. Earlier this month, the company appointed Kristen Hines to the board of executives as its new Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, and today Axios reports that two more women will be joining as well.
Lulu Cheng Meservey will be transitioning immediately from her previous position as Substack’s VP of Communications, while Kerry Carr, previously of Bacardi and Disney, will be nominated for election in June. They will enter into an executive board populated with old friends of controversial CEO Bobby Kotick, which likely explains the vote of confidence they gave Kotick back in November when news broke of his involvement in much of the company’s troubling workplace environment.
The appointment of Meservey and Carr will finally put the company on the right side of a California law that requires public companies with boards bigger than six people to have at least three women on them. The optics for a company like Activision Blizzard, which is trying to do some damage control after news of its troubling and misogynistic workplace culture came out, are no doubt important as well.
Hopefully, the two newest executives will prove a boon for the company, though one at least is not without a small bit of controversy of her own. Meservey recently took some flak on Twitter after posting an unpopular take that seemed to dismiss people’s concerns over Elon Musk’s alleged interest in buying the social media company.
