According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, two leading Red Bull executives pushing diversity and racial justice causes were ousted following internal tensions over the energy drink company’s response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
It was announced last week via an internal memo that North America Chief Executive Stefan Kozak and North America President and Chief Marketing Officer Amy Taylor had both left the company. Red Bull executives already onboard have filled their vacancies.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the Journal reported that “Ms. Taylor had been working on diversity and inclusion efforts within the company with Mr. Kozak’s support for several years but was met with opposition when she began advocating for Red Bull to be more overt in its support of racial justice in the last month.”
As noted in the report, the company was already dealing with some of their U.S. employees raising “concerns” about the company’s “inaction” with regard to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Beginning at the end of May, racially-charged protests and riots erupted across dozens of cities in the U.S. following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died following an arrest caught on viral video that showed an officer holding his knee on the 46-year-old’s neck for several minutes.
The officer at the center of the arrest was soon after charged with second-degree murder, though the swift action did not quell the calls for “justice” and the accompanying riots.
Red Bull has also decided to “discontinue much of its culture marketing programs,” the report said, noting that the Austrian company’s global culture marketing head Florian Klaass will, too, leave Red Bull.
Klaass oversaw the team that presented an apparently racially offensive slide during a February meeting.
As noted by the New York Post in June, the leaked presentation slide included a “repurposed map meme that described India as ‘call centers,’ China as ‘they make our stuff,’ and Africa as ‘zoo animals come from here.'”
“Red Bull has a history of hosting events and publishing content about Black music and culture,” the Journal noted. “U.S.-based executives believed the company had an obligation to publicly support racial justice because it has benefited from its close association with Black culture, the people familiar with the matter said.”
According to the report, Red Bull will now “focus its culture marketing programs on where they make the most impact,” a spokeswoman said. “It will continue the Red Bull BC One, a breakdancing competition, Red Bull Dance Your Style street dancing events, and Red Bull Batalla de los Gallos, a rap competition for Spanish speakers.”
“We reject racism in every form, we always have, and we always will,” the company’s board told the Journal via a statement. “Red Bull has always put people and their dreams and accomplishments at its core and values the contribution of each and every person — no matter who they are. We want everyone who feels this way to be welcome in Red Bull.”