Shawn Finnie, the executive vice president of member relations, global outreach, and awards for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has left the organization after a decade of work on the executive board and two years as its vice president.
Finnie was reportedly in charge of leading outreach initiatives for the more than 20,000 members of the Academy and led a personal team of more than 20 people. He was appointed to his role in June 2021 by former COO Christine Simmons.
Finnie was particularly known for heading DEI Initiatives at the Academy; his resignation comes as the most recent in a long line of resignations from black executives from the Academy, including another executive VP Jeanell English last month, and Christine Simmons herself.
On July 15, the Academy issued a letter to confront the accusations that they were not doing enough to promote diversity within the organization and to address the resignations of multiple black executives.
“Given all of this, we want to reiterate, in the strongest possible terms, the Academy’s commitment to not only continuing, but expanding our efforts to promote diversity and inclusion within our organization and the film industry at large,” said part of the letter, which was signed by Academy CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang.
The Academy’s current makeup, after its new membership invitations were sent earlier in the summer, is now 34% female, 18% from underrepresented communities, and 20% non-United States citizens.
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