GSK bows to Trump pressure and pauses diversity policies

GSK has joined a lengthening list of companies that have paused diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) targets under pressure from US President Donald Trump.

The company has indicated that it is obliged to do so in the US in response to a pair of executive orders by Trump, issued in the first few days of his second term, that banned DEI measures to boost opportunities for women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people and other under-represented groups in federal agencies, according to a report in the Guardian.

The President has also called on the private sector to follow suit, calling DEI initiatives "dangerous, demeaning, and immoral." GSK – one of the few pharma multinationals with a female chief executive – now joins companies like Amazon, Accenture, Google, Pepsi, Meta, Ford, and Walmart, in abandoning or scaling back their programmes.

Other companies, notably Apple, Ben & Jerry's, Costco, and JPMorgan Chase, are resisting the call, while in the pharma industry, AstraZeneca and Novo Nordisk have both indicated they will maintain their DEI policies. It's not clear why, as a UK-headquartered company, GSK would be beholden to follow Trump's order.

In its annual report (PDF) published last week, GSK said it is "presently working to understand and evaluate the impact of the legal environment," adding that the company has "met our previously set overarching ethnicity and gender aspirations but not all individual components."

It goes on to say that "going forward, we will make changes in several areas related to inclusion and diversity to ensure continued compliance with the law and being respectful of our operating environment, including no longer setting aspirational targets for our leadership and supplier programmes." It also said it would no longer apply a board diversity policy.

Meanwhile, the abandonment of DEI in federal agencies has been challenged in the courts on the grounds that the order violates the US Constitution and exceeds the President's executive legal authority, In one suit being heard in Maryland, a judge last week agreed with the plaintiffs - representing educational organisations – and ordered a temporary restraining order on the anti-DEI measures.

GSK said in a statement that it remains "strongly committed to GSK being an inclusive workplace where our people can be themselves, and have their different perspectives, experiences and characteristics valued, because this helps everyone perform at their best."

It added: "We have to ensure we remain compliant with the law in the countries in which we operate, including the US. To be clear, this does not necessarily mean they will be stopped, but we may need to make some changes."