Apple highlights corporate diversity with new showcase of company vice presidents

Apple on Friday added a new tier to its official leadership page, listing five corporate vice presidents and spotlighting some of its diversity beyond the more well-known CEO and senior vice presidents.

Paul Deneve of special projects, Linda Jackson of environmental initiatives, Joel Podolny of Apple University, Johny Srouji of hardware technologies, and Denise Young Smith of human resources are all now part of the "Apple Leadership" page. Two of them —  Deneve and Jackson — are recent hires to the company, with both having joined in 2013.

The five new faces on the page are also noteworthy because of the inclusion of two women. Previously Angela Ahrendts, the head of Apple's retail operations, was the only woman pictured for the company's executive profiles.

Also listed on Apple's leadership page, without accompanying picture thumbnails, is the company's board of directors, which also recently saw a change: Susan L. Wagner, co-founder and director of BlackRock, joined the board last month, replacing Bill Campbell and bringing a second woman onto the oversight group.

The lack of diversity on both Apple's executive team and its board of directors was highlighted by critics earlier this year. The company responded by revising its corporate charter to explicitly say it will consider women and minorities as board candidates.

And Ahrendts officially joined Apple's senior leadership team in April, making her the only woman among the upper echelon of the company's management.

The updated Apple Leadership page comes a few days after the company published a report detailing the diversity of its workforce. Apple revealed that its U.S.-based employees are overwhelmingly white and male, and CEO Tim Cook made it clear he is "not satisfied" with the current demographic at his company.

"We are making progress, and we're committed to being as innovative in advancing diversity as we are in developing our products," Cook said.