Starbucks Chair Warns Companies Lacking Diversity Risk ‘Dying’

American companies eschewing diversity in the boardroom risk “committing corporate suicide,” Starbucks Corp.’s Mellody Hobson said, about a month after taking over as board chair at the coffee giant.

“You can’t be a leading company in the world and not have a diverse board or have a real agenda around diversity without at some point dying as an organization,” Hobson said Wednesday evening at a virtual event sponsored by Bowdoin College. “Now it may take a while, but I do think it will be inevitable.“

Mellody Hobson

Photographer: Calvin Sit/Bloomberg

Co-chief executive officer of Ariel Investments LLC, Hobson replaced outgoing Starbucks Chairman Myron Ullman ...