Seattle-based writing technology startup Textio announced Monday it has named Shari Slate to its board of advisers.
Slate is currently the chief inclusion and collaboration officer at Cisco and its vice president of inclusive future and strategy. She has been with Cisco for about 11 years.
“I'm excited to join the Textio's board of advisers because of the company's innovative approach to creating value at the intersection of inclusion, diversity, collaboration and technology,” Slate said in a statement. “By delivering digital solutions for inclusion that can be scaled to prioritize efficacy, Textio is providing modern solutions for solving long-standing challenges.”
Prior to Cisco, Slate spent about 10 years at Sun Microsystems, where she eventually held the role of chief diversity officer. She also spent about five years at Xerox and she sits on the board of governors at the California State University Foundation.
Textio, founded in 2014, helps clients choose better language in job postings to attract top candidates. The company also helps clients recognize unconscious bias and offers language data insights to guide clients. Texio's customers include Zillow, F5 and McDonald's.
"(Slate) is at the vanguard of a major industry trend, leading both DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and collaboration as intertwined disciplines at Cisco," Kieran Snyder, Textio co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Shari also brings deep experience on the business and go-to-market side prior to taking on leadership work in DEI."
Her breadth of experience means she will be able to offer "valuable input" on many different facets of the company's business, Snyder said.
Slate joins Bobby Kolba, Textio's first employee, on the board of advisers. Textio's five-member board of directors includes Snyder; Jensen Harris, the company's other co-founder and chief technology officer; Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures; Gordon Ritter of Emergence Capital; and Stacey Bishop of Scale Venture Partners.
Editor's note: The story has been corrected to include Kieran Snyder and Jensen Harris on the board of directors.
