Photo by Dia Dipasupil/FilmMagic
There are 2 kinds of people in the world: Those who know Alexis Ohanian as Serena Williams’ husband and those who know him as one of Reddit’s 3 cofounders.
On Friday, after 15 years, Ohanian announced he was leaving the Reddit board — and he asked that a black executive take his place. Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman agreed to the plan.
Ohanian hasn’t been active in the day-to-day of Reddit since 2018, but his decision is a big step: Instead of just talking about diversifying the company’s all-white board, he’s actually doing it.
“I believe resignation can actually be an act of leadership from people in power right now,” he wrote in a blog post.
Not only that, but Ohanian committed all of his future Reddit stock gains — possibly as much as $50m, according to TechCrunch — to “serve the black community.”
His first step: A $1m donation to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp.