Conaressional HisPanic Caucus
‘Michelle Lujan Grisham | Chairwoman
I15tH Conaress
May 11, 2018
Jeff Bezos
‘Chairman and CEO
Amazon
410 Terry Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109
Dear Mr. Bezos
‘We write to express our concern after a Recode article reported that Amazon's board of directors
recommended a vote against a shareholder proposal that would implement the “Rooney Rule,”
‘hich requires that qualified women and minority candidates are included in the list of
candidates considered for director positions.
‘As you may recall, we wrote a letter to you on behalf of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a
group of 31 Members of Congress of Hispanic descent, in October 2017 requesting to actively
‘work with your company, along with 31 ether companies, to address the systemic lack of
diversity in the technology sect
We appreciated the timely response we received from Amazon. In the letter, it was stated that
diversity is an important consideration across the entire company and tha, because of the diverse
‘makeup of Amazon's consumers, your company strives to include a diverse workforce that meets
the needs ofthe customers you serve. We believe therefore, that Amazon would be inclined to
support a proposal thet secks to merely include qualified women and minority candidates
alongside other skilled individuals. z
We believe the adoption ofthe Rooney Rule is a particularly important proposal forthe company
given that Amazon isthe sole corporation among its peers to not havea single person of color
among their board of directors. In fact, ofthe 105 top executives at Amazon, only one is
Hispanic, For Hispanic manages, which includes both men and women, that number is only
five percent, With Hispanics accounting forthe nation’s largest minority group and nearly 17
percent ofthe labor force, iis clear that Amazon has room for improvement.
‘The technology sector and companies like Amazon are leaders in innovation and developing
some of the most cutting-edge and life-changing technologies in the world. We think that
embracing innovative ideas to make rel change should apply across the board- including
employing new ways to embrace the diverse makeup of our nation to better incorporate the ideas,
talent and voices ofall segments of our nation. We recognize that this is an important objective
for Amazon and, therefore, urge the company to work towards this goal by seriously consideringall proposals that seek to advance the success of the company, white reflecting the makeup of our
nation, and the consumers you serve.
We would welcome a meeting with you to hear what steps Amazon has taken and will continue
to take to achieve greater diversity within your company.
fmibulbe. hejen Sram (pom Few
CHC Chair CHC First Vice-Chair