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Twitter adds BET CEO Debra Lee to its board

The cable TV executive helps brings more diversity to Twitter's ranks.

By Peter Kafka
Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images for PGD Global
Peter Kafka covers media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.

Twitter has added Debra Lee, the CEO of BET, to its board.

Twitter chair Omid Kordestani made the announcement via Twitter, of course.

And Lee followed up with her own Tweet:

Lee's appointment is significant because, unlike other Twitter board members, she is an active Twitter user.

It's also significant because Lee, whose company is best known as the home of Black Entertainment Television, is a black woman joining a board that has been primarily composed of white men.

Last month, when Twitter announced the addition of new board members Hugh Johnston and Martha Lane Fox , Kordestani and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey promised to make additional appointments that would diversify the board.

Unlike Johnston and Fox, Lee won't be replacing any of Twitter's existing board members; instead, Twitter is simply increasing the size of its board.

Lee joined BET, now owned by Viacom, in 1986 and worked her way up the ladder, grabbing the top job in 2006.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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