Intel Security general manager Chris Young has revealed that he is preparing to announce new female executive appointments into his leadership team in the very near future.
Although he wouldn’t give any names, Young exclusively told CBR: "Within the next couple of weeks we expect to add some new female executives to the security leadership team."
He said: "We want to do better from a diversity perspective. The good news is we’ve got a strong effort in place and I would tell you that you’ll see a change in our leadership team".
Young is also concerned that the US is not training enough people with the right coding and technical skills, and said that the country is "falling behind the rest of the world" in that respect.
"The US is not producing," he said. "We’re importing a lot of our technical talent in this country. That’s fine, because technology is global in some ways, but I think there’s still opportunity that’s not being filled".
For Young, recruitment from a young age is also happens to be critical to improving diversity. He told CBR:
"We have to bring more women, more under represented minorities into the workforce for IT and for cybersecurity in the first place. We’re not going to materially change the numbers if we don’t enough people coming into the business."
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has previously announced $300m investment into improving diversity across his firm, and Young said that Intel as whole is making a significant effort in boosting diversity within its ranks:
"What I like about Intel, and Intel’s approach to this, is Intel frankly hasn’t been afraid to have the conversation, and it started with the top, it started with the CEO. I think that has given everyone else a little bit more comfort in terms of there ability to talk about it."
As one of the leading black executives in the technology industry, Young said "I might count myself in the diversity!"