The California Department of fair employment and housing (dfeh) sued Blizzard last July, saying it "created a culture of 'persistent sexual harassment' and gender based discrimination". For the rest of the year, the revelations only confirmed these claims, and even as allegations of retaliation continued to emerge, a group of new leaders said they were committed to making change.
In January, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra wrote, "what we are doing is to rebuild your trust in blizzard", including descriptions of several full-time leadership positions to change the company culture. At present, it seems that two of these positions have been filled. Activision Blizzard appointed Kristen Hines as its new chief diversity, fairness and inclusion officer last month. Today Blizzard Entertainment announced Jessica Martinez as its first vice president and cultural director.
According to blizzard, her responsibilities include developing and implementing their cultural strategies to ensure consistency among all teams and functions, as well as reforming learning and talent development plans. According to the announcement, Martinez will lead the learning and development team and cooperate with the leaders of communication, activities and each franchise and functional department. It is understood that Martinez is considered to have 14 years of experience in leading strategy, communication, operation and employee experience at Disney.
In addition to these positions, Ybarra's post also mentioned the introduction of a new organizational leader in the human resources department, "who will build trust, empower our team and help cultivate a safe and positive working environment for everyone". In addition, Ybarra said that executives' compensation will depend on their success in creating a safe, inclusive and creative working environment in blizzard.