Twitter names first black woman to board: BET’s Debra Lee

Debra Lee, the chairwoman and chief executive of BET Networks, the parent company of the Black Entertainment Television cable channel.

Lee, 61, appeared to be the answer to co-founder Jack Dorsey’s vow to diversify the social media giant’s board in his second stint as the company’s chief executive.

Twitter’s board, whose homogenous makeup is commonplace among Bay Area tech firms, had been all-male until 2013 and all-white until last year.

Rev. Jesse Jackson — whose tech-focused advocacy group, the Rainbow Push Coalition, has called for greater diversity in Silicon Valley — said he was pleased to see someone with “solid roots in the black community” named to Twitter’s leadership team.

Hopefully, Debra will help Twitter create needed pathways and improve its engagement with African Americans and other communities of color.