At the recent Code conference in May, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky promised that the vacation home rental company was going to add a woman to its board. Today, the company is doing that by appointing Ann Mather as an independent director.
Airbnb is adding the first woman to its board — former Disney and Pixar executive Ann Mather
She also sits on the boards of Alphabet and Netflix.
She is an experienced board member — serving on the boards of Alphabet and Netflix — with a strong financial background as the CFO of Pixar from 1999 to 2004. Before that, she did stints at Village Roadshow Pictures and The Walt Disney Company.
“In meeting Ann, I was immediately impressed by her deep financial technical expertise, her passion for innovation, and her fierce commitment to fostering growth within creative cultures like the one we have at Airbnb,” said Chesky in a statement. “Ann values taking smart, ambitious long-term bets and has the vision to see how they can transform a company and its stakeholders.”
And there might be a second woman director coming soon, as Chesky noted at Code.
“I’d like to add two this year, and we’re probably gonna add somebody who’s got an audit profile and then somebody with a broader business/general management profile,” said Chesky.
Airbnb’s current board before the Mather appointment has six members, including three of its founders. The pressure for tech startups to add a more diverse slate of directors has been increasing in recent years, especially as they prepare to go public.
Here’s Chesky’s full interview at Code:
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
