Energy drink company Red Bull has parted ways with two top U.S. executives for creating internal schisms within the company over responding more fervently in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Red Bull GmbH told The Wall Street Journal last week that it had fired Stefan Kozak, its North America chief executive, and Amy Taylor, its North America president and chief marketing officer over the differences.
Taylor had been working on diversity and inclusion efforts within the company with Kozak’s support for years but was met with opposition recently when she began exerting more pressure on the Austrian company to be more overt in support of racial justice matters.
Kozak and Taylor were trying to create tension around “diversity issues,” according to insiders, and pressure the company to make more diversity hires.
The company also “cut or dissolved entertainment and culture teams in Canada, the UK, and Austria and canceled most of its major cultural events.” These culture teams were “the most vocal about racial justice matters” and were fired for trying to force Red Bull into a political direction it didn’t want to take, employees said.
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