Women are moving up in the business world—or at least more so than they used to. According to Forbes, Amazon’s board is now made up of 30 percent women after the company’s recent acquisition of former MTV CEO Judy McGrath. The hire makes her the third woman out of the ten directors to sit next to Amazon’s CEO and Chairman Jeff Bezos. The company announced she will begin on Oct. 1.
McGrath joins Amazon with 30 years of experience at MTV, becoming CEO in 2004. In addition to MTV, McGrath also oversaw Nickelodeon and Comedy Central as a part of her job. She resigned from the position in 2011 and has since spent her time as president of Astronauts Wanted, a joint venture undertaken with Sony Music Entertainment.
Amazon’s acquisition of McGrath is seen as a move to help bolster the online-retail giant’s current television content. Just recently, Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak explained that Amazon expects to spend $100 million in original programming in just the third quarter of 2014.
In a phone call with Forbes, Szkutak explained, “A lot of you have probably seen a lot of the announcements that we’ve green-lighted a number of pilots. We’re going to be in heavy production in those series that have been green-lit during Q3.”
McGrath is currently listed as the 62nd most influential woman worldwide and will join Patricia Stonesifer, former CEO of Martha’s Table, and Jamie Gorelick, former U.S. Attorney General, as a part of Amazon’s growing female leadership. Businesses have come under immense pressure to promote women into prominent leadership roles in the last decade. As of recently, the tech industry in particular has come under incredible fire for the lack of female presence. Workplace equality is far from being equal, but it looks like Amazon is trying to be ahead of the curve.
Image Credit: flickr/Bhupinder Nayyar
