{"id":22905,"date":"2026-02-18T11:45:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=22905"},"modified":"2026-02-18T11:45:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:45:25","slug":"goldman-sachs-scraps-dei-criteria-for-its-board-as-business-case-for-boardroom-diversity-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=22905","title":{"rendered":"Goldman Sachs scraps DEI criteria for its board as business case for boardroom diversity grows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2258342462-e1771410822365.jpg?w=2048\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Good morning. <\/strong>Goldman Sachs got some unwanted attention yesterday for its reported plans to scrap DEI criteria for its board, about a year after erasing diversity goals for its workforce. Many other companies have done the same amid a federal crackdown and several state lawsuits over corporate DEI efforts. (Starbucks won a dismissal last week after Missouri challenged its DEI initiatives, freeing up time to battle a recent suit in Florida.)<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>When asked, every CEO tells me that they remain committed to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce, even if those words are being erased from public documents. They cite the studies that diverse teams perform better, arguing efforts continue behind the scenes. They just don\u2019t want to talk about it. One exception is Costco CEO Ron Vachris who continues to publicly affirm the retailer\u2019s commitment to diversity even as rivals have scaled back.<\/p>\n<p>Boards are another matter. Investors want results. Along with setting CEO compensation, directors manage succession and hold management accountable. U.S. boards tend to be more diverse than the companies they oversee, with white men occupying fewer than half the board seats on Fortune 50 boards for the third year in a row. But that\u2019s changing, as the Conference Board reports that the number of companies disclosing directors\u2019 race and ethnicity in the S&amp;P 500 has dropped dramatically, and ISS-Corporate reports white men made up the majority of <em>new<\/em> directors in that group for the first time since 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Given the challenges facing companies right now, the case for diverse perspectives is compelling. A staggering number of women are leaving the U.S. workforce, for example, many because of caregiving costs and responsibilities. Part of a board\u2019s job is to recognize and press leaders on such issues. One CEO told me that issues like childcare and flexibility became part of boardroom talent discussions after a third woman joined their board.<\/p>\n<p>Who is in the boardroom also impacts who lands in the C-suite. Boards are training grounds for the next generation of leaders, a place where they can see leadership in action and get direct exposure to issues they\u2019ll face in CxO roles. Getting a board seat is not just a culmination of a career well spent but an opportunity to ascend to the top ranks. Finding top talent is hard enough without limiting opportunities to develop it.<\/p>\n<p><em>Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Top leadership news<\/h3>\n<p><b>Klarna CEO predicts AI will shrink headcount<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski says he expects white-collar headcount at the buy now, pay later company to fall by one-third by 2030. \u201cThe reason for that is because I\u2019ve seen the acceleration of AI,\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\">said<\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> Siemiatkowski, who\u2019s already overseen a 50% reduction in Klarna\u2019s workforce in recent years. The company claims its OpenAI-powered customer service chatbot can do the work of 800 full-time agents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Goldman Sachs predicts drop in U.S. immigration<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Net immigration in the U.S is expected to <\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\">drop<\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> 80% from the roughly 1 million people who entered the country annually on average through the 2010s, according to a new Goldman Sachs report. As a result, the firm estimates that the U.S. now needs about 50,000 new jobs per month to keep unemployment in check, down from 70,000.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>A WFH comeback?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">New data from the National Bureau of Labor Statistics <\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\">suggests<\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> that remote work could make a comeback as millennials and Gen Z move into managerial roles. Data shows that as CEOs get younger, work-from-home days tend to rise.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>The markets<\/h3>\n<p><b>S&amp;P 500<\/b><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> futures were up 0.59% this morning. The last session closed up 0.1%. <\/span><b>STOXX Europe 600<\/b><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> was up 0.87% in early trading. <\/span><b>The U.K.\u2019s FTSE 100<\/b><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> was up 0.96% in early trading.<\/span><b> Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225<\/b><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> was up 1.02%.<\/span><b> Chinese markets <\/b><span style=\"font-weight:400\">are closed for the New Year, as are<\/span><b> South Korea markets<\/b><span style=\"font-weight:400\">.<\/span><b> India\u2019s NIFTY 50<\/b><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> was up 0.37%.<\/span><b> Bitcoin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> was at $68K.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Around the watercooler<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Why your boss loves AI and you hate it: Corporate profits are capturing your extra productivity, and your salary isn\u2019t<\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> by Eva Roytburg<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Anthropic was supposed to be a \u2018safe\u2019 alternative to OpenAI, but CEO Dario Amodei admits his company struggles to balance safety with profits<\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Ray Dalio warns of \u2018great disorder\u2019 period for world economy, marked by \u2018clash of great powers\u2019\u2014just like the 1930s<\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> by Jake Angelo<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">??You need $2 million to retire and \u2018almost no one is close,\u2019 BlackRock CEO warns, a problem that Gen X will make \u2018harder and nastier\u2019<\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> by Sydney Lake<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Billionaire Trump supporter blocks sale of Texas warehouse for use as ICE jail<\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> by Jacqueline Munis <\/span><\/p>\n<p>CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams, Claire Zillman and Lee Clifford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Goldman #Sachs #scraps #DEI #criteria #board #business #case #boardroom #diversity #grows<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Good morning. Goldman Sachs go&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[2517,13498,266,1238,451,13497,2636,10695,2097,5461,2098,6330],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}