Warner Bros. Discovery North America DEI Executive Karen Horne leaves

Karen Horne, who ran Warner Bros. Discovery Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for North America, is leaving the company amid a series of layoffs and major restructurings since the merger. The executive said Horne's departure was not part of a broader staff reduction, but an overhaul of the DEI division.

DEI Director Asif Sadiq has announced the departure of the highly respected Burbank-based Horne, in an email to staff. Last September, WBD revamped its DEI team under Sadiq who will lead the group. Horne, SVP for North America was a key leader. Three other positions in Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific were entrusted to him. The move came after the combined company faced early criticism for its decision to appoint a slate of all-white male directors to its board and a relative lack of diversity in its senior ranks.

Last year, Horne was named head of Warner Bros.' popular director program. Discovery. This happened after the company initially closed, before it turned around.

The company had revealed in October that the initiative, which has been praised for including various voice in the television industry, was closed to Warner Bros. Television, where they resided, as part of a series of massive cuts. However, later that day he announced that he would in fact be bringing it back, but that it would be housed within WBD's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion unit, under Horne, rather than through Warner Bros. TV.

She then joined WarnerMedia in March 2020, after being at NBC Entertainment and Universal Television Studios as as Senior Vice President, Programming Talent Development and Inclusion.

The LA Times broke the story.

READ MEMO:

Dear DE&I Team,

It's been almost a year since I assumed my role and started working with this incredibly talented and innovative global team. Together, we have made great strides towards creating and implementing a holistic diversity, equity and inclusion strategy that effectively serves WBD employees, our creative partners, diverse talent across industry, as well as consumers around the world.

I'm proud of the work we've done and know that other accomplishments and progress is ahead of us this year and into 2024. I want to share some news on how we are growing and changing our team to most effectively meet the unique regional needs of employees.

We will now have designated leads who will be solely responsible for employee-related initiatives in each region . This will allow our content program managers to have a truly global perspective when developing opportunities for diverse talent and increase representation on screen and behind the camera, while ensuring regional managers can focus on how we educate, empower and engage our employees.

With this new approach, Karen Horne, Senior Vice President of North America Nord DE&I, which has a broad DE&I portfolio beyond employee-related initiatives, will leave the company. As you know, Karen is a talented executive who is committed to our common goals of creating an even more inclusive business and an accessible and fair industry. I thank Karen for the important role she played in building a solid foundation while integrating the legacy companies' teams and programs, and I wish her the best. We will shortly begin the search for a new Group Vice President North America DE&I to...