venturebeat.com - 

Pinterest is making some moves in an effort to follow through on improving its diversity, but will it meet the approval of critics? The visual discovery engine company announced that it has hired its first head of diversity, in addition to launching two programs aimed at bringing on board more engineers from nontraditional and/or underrepresented backgrounds.

In July, Pinterest outlined its goals for 2016 with respect to diversity. Included are things like increasing hiring rates for full-time engineers who are females and/or from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds. To help supervise this, it has brought on board Candice Morgan, previously a senior director for global member services at Catalyst Inc. What’s notable about this selection is that she comes from a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting female inclusion in the workplace.

So unlike some companies that have hired away diversity leaders from others in the industry, Pinterest appears to want to show its dedication by getting someone who has spent more than a decade promoting diversity.

“Diverse teams — in terms of demographics and thought — outperform homogenous teams on innovation and problem solving,” Morgan said in a statement. “I’ve spent my career advising major businesses on best practice in diversity and inclusion, and am thrilled to join Pinterest, a company committed to bringing the fullest creative potential to our product.”