Hillary Clinton drops in on eBay women's summit

Marco della Cava | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption eBay CEO: Gender equality is 'good business' With the spotlight glowing hotter on tech company diversity numbers, eBay sought to put its best face forward at an internal women-focused conference Wednesday that drew a surprise guest in Hillary Clinton.



SAN JOSE, Calif. – With the spotlight glowing hotter on tech company diversity numbers, eBay sought to put its best face forward at an internal women-focused conference Wednesday that drew a surprise guest in Hillary Clinton.

"If we apply Silicon Valley's successful approach to the issues of gender and inequality, I'm sure we can make progress," Clinton told 400 female and 100 male eBay executives who had gathered for the company's Women's Initiative Network Summit here.

The former Secretary of State and presumptive 2016 Democratic presidential candidate noted that a natural bias towards men in hiring and promotion "is hardwired, so we have to go the extra mile to unwrap it."

eBay CEO John Donahoe, who started the WIN program in 2011, said that while eBay had made progress – bumping the number of women at the director level and above 148% to 514 – "it's time to expand the mandate."

Currently, women make up 42% of eBay's 33,000 global workers, with 24% of director-and-above level roles going to women, as well as 24% of tech jobs and 49% of non-tech jobs. That compares to a tech industry average of 11% of women in executive roles, according to a survey by Fenwick & West.

"Diversity and inclusiveness is on the map at eBay, and will be on the map when we split into two companies, eBay and PayPal," likely later this summer, Donahoe told USA TODAY. "It's not just because it's an important social issue, it's because it contributes to our success."

Donahoe, who joined eBay a decade back and took the CEO reins from Meg Whitman in 2008, said that he was inspired to provide a better corporate environment after a personal matter almost required him to quit working for his previous employer, consulting firm Bain & Company.

"Instead of leaving, I was given the opportunity to work part-time, and later when I led Bain I started a leave of absence program," he said. "It's about becoming a better company. Sometimes it's very hard to change the culture, and you feel like it's two steps forward and one back. But nothing good comes easy. I've learned the value of resilience and commitment."

During the program's morning session, human resources senior vice president Beth Axelrod shared a range of internal statistics that indicated that many employees still feel their company has a long way to go in terms of diversity. Women at the company felt their performance was often not assessed fairly, and some felt that leaders were less likely to advocate for women when it came time for promotions.

Another slide showed 43% of eBay women surveyed said they felt understood by male colleagues, while 82% of men felt that women understood them. "I suppose you could also find that statistic just standing on a street corner," joked Axelrod. "But we're going to find a way to make this more transparent and fair."

While the eBay data didn't specifically break down its top female executives by ethnicity or sexual orientation, company officials said they were aware that inclusiveness had to be defined broadly. That's a key issue for many experts and activists watching how tech companies improve their personnel mix.

"The danger is patting oneself on the back for hiring more white women, because history shows us that those who don't reap the benefits of such initiatives are women of color and those in the LGBTQ community," says Nicole Sanchez, CEO of Vaya Consulting, which helps tech companies institute diversity programs. She says she's never been busier.

"Many companies do want to get this right and are asking the right questions," says Sanchez. "One thing a company the size, wealth and prestige of eBay can do is hire high-ranking women from elsewhere. So in that sense, they really wouldn't have to wait for people to work their way up the ladder. They could get their numbers to change faster."

In fact, among the themes hammered on at the summit was the need to not just recruit better, but retain that talent once they've signed on. One slide that popped on-screen before the attendees noted that many women who leave eBay after being recruited by another firm do so because they feel their chances of promotion were greater elsewhere.

Clinton stressed the importance of a diverse workplace, noting that "this isn't just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do for eBay's bottom line. Inclusivity in the 21st century is a recipe for success. It brings fresh ideas and higher revenues. And in our multi-cultural country, building a more diverse talent pool isn't a nice-to-do, it's a must-do."

Clinton has been dogged of late by questions over her use of a personal email address for government business during her years as secretary of state. The matter did not come up at the summit.

While her appearance at the tech company might seem like a bit of a surprise, she has personal ties to Donahoe's wife, Eileen, who worked for Clinton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva between 2010 and 2013.

Clinton's appearance amounted to a 20-minute speech, which included references to economic-engine partnerships with eBay when she was a U.S. Senator from New York, followed by a question and answer session with Axelrod.

The topics ranged from Clinton's parenting ("We always made sure that Chelsea went with us when we volunteered, so she could see how other people lived") to doing business in Russia and China, which Axelrod said were proving to be difficult markets for eBay.

"With respect to Russia, corruption is a cancerous problem for many businesses," said Clinton. "You have to try and maneuver through it, but it's important to keep tying to do business there. I'm very concerned about the aggressive behavior of Putin and his government. It's a security issue and an economic issue."

Clinton also said she had recently spent time with Jack Ma, whose company Alibaba has "branched into so many different areas, they've really taken the eBay model and pushed all the walls out. I think that all of you here (at eBay) should just be thinking as broadly as possible."

She also allowed that Chinese officials were becoming more restrictive when it comes to letting U.S. multinationals to do business in their country. "I'm quite sober about our companies competing (in China) going forward," she said, giving the example of FedEx losing many of its Chinese locations due to new government regulations. "It's one of the biggest questions I faced as secretary of state."

But the fact that a woman was addressing these matters of state wasn't lost on the crowd, which gave Clinton a standing ovation.

"There's never been a better time in history to be born female," she said. "But, despite all the progress, the data shows we're not there yet. In the tech industry, there are still barriers and biases that hold back women and minorities. There's still a lot of work to be done."