Karen Horne has exited her post as Senior V.P. of North America Diversity Equity and Inclusion for Warner Bros. Discovery as part of the company’s restructuring. A WBD memo from Chief Global DEI Officer Asif Sadiq to staffers, which Variety has obtained, revealed the news on Friday.
Horne oversaw the DEI efforts for creative talent development pipeline programs, workforce, content and production while working closely with Sadiq to craft a global strategy for the company.
She joined the company in March of 2020, and was responsible for creating and implementing multiple pipeline programs that aim to amplify the voices of underrepresented communities. Prior to her appointment, Horne was at NBC Entertainment and Universal Television Studios as Senior Vice President, Programming Talent Development and Inclusion where she was responsible for overseeing in-front-of and behind-the-camera primetime diversity efforts for NBC and Universal Television. While there, she started the Late-Night Writers Workshop in 2013.
According to the memo, Horne’s departure comes not as part of the recent trend of belt tightening throughout Hollywood, but as a result of restructuring as Warner Bros. Discovery moves to transform its system of having people in regions focused on employee initiatives.
“We will now have designated leads who are tasked solely with employee-related initiatives in each region. This will enable our content program leads to have a truly global perspective when developing opportunities for diverse talent and increasing representation on screen and behind the camera, while ensuring the regional leads can focus on how we educate, empower, and engage our employees,” the statement reads.
“As a result of this new approach, Karen Horne, Senior Vice President of North America DE&I, who has a broad DE&I portfolio beyond employee-related initiatives, will be departing the company. As you know, Karen is a talented executive who is committed to our shared goals of creating an even more inclusive company and an accessible and equitable industry. I thank Karen for the important role she played in establishing a strong foundation while integrating the legacy companies’ teams and programs, and wish her the very best. We will begin a search shortly for a new group vice president of North America DE&I to oversee our employee-focused DE&I initiatives, and will be speaking to both internal and external candidates over the next several weeks,” it continued.
Read the memo in full below.
It has been nearly a year since I assumed my role and began working with this incredibly talented and innovative global team. Together, we have made great strides toward creating and implementing a holistic diversity, equity and inclusion strategy that effectively serves WBD employees, our creative partners, diverse talent industry-wide, as well as consumers around the world.
I am proud of the work we have done and know that even more accomplishments and progress are ahead for us this year and in 2024. I want to share some news about how we are both growing and changing our team so that we most effectively serve the unique regional needs of employees.
We will now have designated leads who are tasked solely with employee-related initiatives in each region. This will enable our content program leads to have a truly global perspective when developing opportunities for diverse talent and increasing representation on screen and behind the camera, while ensuring the regional leads can focus on how we educate, empower, and engage our employees.
As a result of this new approach, Karen Horne, Senior Vice President of North America DE&I, who has a broad DE&I portfolio beyond employee-related initiatives, will be departing the company. As you know, Karen is a talented executive who is committed to our shared goals of creating an even more inclusive company and an accessible and equitable industry. I thank Karen for the important role she played in establishing a strong foundation while integrating the legacy companies’ teams and programs, and wish her the very best. We will begin a search shortly for a new group vice president of North America DE&I to oversee our employee-focused DE&I initiatives, and will be speaking to both internal and external candidates over the next several weeks.
Our international structure will follow a similar model. We are in the process of identifying a new group vice president to join our team. Niarchos Pabalis, Mona Malakooti, and the person who fills the open director position in EMEA will report to this new GVP. In addition to providing counsel to the regional leads and adding further expertise to our group, the GVP will work closely with me, Gerhard Zeiler, President, International, and his leadership team to promote increased engagement around programs for our employees.
Importantly, these changes do not alter our commitment to or our plans for pipeline programs and content-driven initiatives — these are fundamental pillars of our DE&I strategy and will continue to be areas of investment and focus. Grace Moss and Yvette Urbina will continue to report to me directly while working closely with the regional teams.
I will keep you updated as we identify leaders to fill these key roles in our new structure. In the meantime, thank you for your incredible dedication to our team and the important work we do. Please reach out with any thoughts or questions.