AppleInsider Staff
Bozoma Saint John, global marketing executive for Apple Music and iTunes, took part in a brief interview as part of Fortune's Most Powerful Women Next Gen conference on Tuesday, offering those in attendance a lesson in self-confidence she learned as a teenager.
Speaking to Fortune, Saint John recalled how at the age of about 13 she emigrated from Ghana to Colorado Springs, Colo., with her parents and three younger sisters. The life changing experience forced her to embrace who she was, a realization that helped pave a road for success, first at Pepsi, then Beats and now at Apple.
Saint John said her stature (she was about the same height at 13 as she is now) and skin color effectively deflated any attempt to fit in among her peers. This ultimately turned out to be a blessing, however.
"I couldn't hide, there wasn't a choice to do that," Saint John said. "So the choice was do you try to do what everybody else was doing? I couldn't be blond, I couldn't be white. [...] I just couldn't be anything else, and so it meant that I had to become just all of everything that I have."
The lesson was an important one for Saint John, who bears her diverse background as a virtue, not a hinderance.
"Because at 13, I learned what it meant to walk into a room and not care when everybody else turned around and looked at you. And here I am," she said.
The message echoes an Apple initiative to celebrate diversity among its employees by creating an all-inclusive workplace. According to a recent EEO-1 filing, the company has a long way to go for its upper echelons reach an equilibrium between white males and underrepresented minorities — at least by government measures — but progress is being made.
Known to friends as "Boz," Saint John became part of the Apple team when the company purchased Beats Music in 2014. Initially a behind-the-scenes operator, Saint John recently came to the fore thanks to a memorable onstage presentation at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
The executive has since become a corporate ambassador of sorts for Apple Music, and even found herself in an Apple Music ad alongside SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, Jimmy Iovine and James Corden.
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34 Comments
That's a very nice choice of photo...
Seriously. She's a beautiful woman in many ways and THATS the photo you use? Would you want someone to do that to YOU?
come on, man.
Im sure she's a breath of fresh air st Apple. And not because of her ethnicity. Because she's an amazing human being. look up her life. A genuinely good person in a world full of fakes, liars, and wolves.
I hope she is blessed much in her career and her life.
If that's a photo from the conference then that's probably the most topical one to use. Yes, the picture doesn't do her justice, but that's just how it goes, and I speak as someone who is about as photogenic as a week-old zombie.
No dude. Sorry. There are plenty more very current photos to use. At least AI updated to a slightly better one.
I don't get it. I don't know/care who she is, as I'm sure most do. I'm ok with not being with the majority of thoughts and opinions on here, but dang man, I thought Apple was a Technology company. I guess Apple is deciding to go with fame,fashion,and designer names and brands rather than innovating, and tech. I remember the days when Apple was the counter culture. :neutral: Oh well. At least they make wonderful phones and tablets.