NEWS

This morning at TechCrunch Disrupt NY, Walker & Co. founder Tristan Walker spoke about bringing more diversity to Silicon Valley and his plan to reach 5,000 black and Latina/o students this next year through his Code2040 program. The former Foursquare exec and co-founder of Code2040 also runs the aforementioned Walker & Co., a health and beauty startup with a focus on people of color. Its first product, Bevel is a razor targeted towards those with coarse or curly hair.

In May 2014, Google became one of the first technology companies to release a report with its employee diversity figures. This began a trend among fellow tech titans in what has become one of the most talked-about movements in Silicon Valley and beyond. Google’s data about its employee demographics revealed an overwhelmingly nondiverse employee base: the search giant’s statistics showed a gender breakdown of 70% male employees and just 30% female employees, and a workforce that is more than 60% white. Other companies like Apple, Facebook and Twitter followed suit and released their own information. Perhaps not surprisingly, their collective numbers prove the technology industry has a big diversity problem.

Intel will invest $5 million over the next five years in a new pilot program to teach computer science to high school students in the Oakland Unified School District. If successful, the program could become a national model for technology companies to groom the next generation of computer scientists, creating a new pathway for underrepresented minorities and women into the technology industry, Brian Krzanich told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview this week.

Many older Georgians recall our economic leadership in what were called the “Four Ps” – peanuts, poultry, pine trees and pecans. These were solid building blocks of the Georgia economy decades ago, and we can be proud that Georgia still leads in these areas. Over the years, Georgia became home to worldwide industry-leading businesses like Delta, UPS, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Aflac, Gulfstream, AGCO, Shaw Industries, Mohawk Industries, Newell Rubbermaid, Flowers Industries and many others. Moving into the 21st-century economy, Georgia added highly innovative communities of industry to the state. The state has become a leader in health care information technology, financial technology, information security, video game development, interactive marketing, logistics, communications and television and film production. Among our accomplishments: