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adidas Executive Karen Parkin is stepping down. The news follows after protests within the company took place. Employees within the Portland headquarters were vocal about the mistreatment within the company and cited Karen Parkin.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal in 2019, Parkin thought the issue of racism was “noise” and that the brand had no issues of it, as mentioned by the WSJ.
adidas issued a statement reaffirming the brand’s plans from June 9 to create a more inclusive workforce and the environment with hiring initiatives and more.
Parkin issued the following statement after her departure.
While we have made progress in many areas, there is much more work to be done. However, it has become clear to me that to unify the organization it would be better for me to retire and pave the way for change. Now is the right time for a new HR leader to take over the function, to seize the opportunity before us and drive forward the pace of change to create a more diverse and inclusive adidas that we can all be proud of.
