Deirdre O ‘Brien has been named as Apple’s people vice president. As head of the human resources department at the Cupertino, California-based tech giant, Deirdre O ‘Brien will be in charge of recruiting efforts as well as employee and benefits compensation for the largest employer in Silicon Valley. Deirdre O ‘Brien will be reporting directly to the company’s chief executive officer, Tim Cook.

“Deirdre deeply understands Apple’s unique culture and that people join Apple to do the best work of their lives. She is a superb leader and I’m thrilled she will be bringing her experience and talent to this critical role,” said Cook in a statement.

Apple University

Other responsibilities that O’Brien will have include running Apple University, the corporate training program of the iPhone maker. O’Brien has been an employee of the tech giant for close to three decades.

The position of VP of people at Apple became vacant two months ago when, Denise Young Smith, the company’s former head of human resources was appointed as the inclusion and diversity vice president. Before the appointment as the VP of people, O’Brien was Apple’s worldwide sales and operations vice president.

Diversity report

The appointment of O’Brien’s comes at a time when the diversity and inclusivity of tech companies is coming under increased scrutiny. Last year Apple disclosed in its yearly diversity report that it was only able to improve by small margins the hiring of women and minorities. In its workforce in the United States, which numbers more than 80,000 people, the number of workers who identify as Hispanics increase to 12% compared to 2015 when the figure was 11%. African-Americans on the other hand comprised about 9% of the workforce while women were approximately 32% of the employees in Apple’s global workforce which is about 125,000-people strong.

In the leadership ranks, the ratio of women managers employed by the tech giant was 28% across the globe. African-American managers in the United States only comprised of about 3% of the leadership ranks. The ratio of Hispanic managers increased from 6% in 2015 to 7% in 2016. One significant improvement for Apple with regards to inclusivity and diversity was that it closed pay gaps that were based on race and gender.