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Nikesh Arora, the chief executive of the cyber security company Palo Alto Networks, has issued an apology for employing women to pose as lamp stands during a trade event in Las Vegas. The Indian origin CEO’s apology came after facing a series of backlash on the social media.
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What Caused the Uproar ?
During an event intended to showcase the cybersecurity firm’s sponsorship of the “CyberRisk Collaborative Happy Hour” at the Black Hat conference, women dressed in form-fitting outfits and wearing branded lampshades greeted attendees. The pictures of the event went viral with many lambasting the CEO and his firm for being sexist.
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Many believed that the concept for the outfits appears to be influenced by the “booth babes” from the early Consumer Electronics Shows in the 1960s, where women were employed as hostesses at predominantly male-centric events.
Lashing out at the company, veteran global CISO Olivia Rose, shamed Palo Alto in a post on LinkedIn. “Shame. Shame. Shame on you, both Palo Alto Networks and CyberRisk Collaborative. So we women are nothing more than props to you? We are only at BlackHat to be lampshade holders??”
“Are those intended to represent bright ideas inside our heads or… just light bulbs? Shame on you. Just shame. Do better. It’s really not that hard,” she went on to add.
“Palo Alto should also be made aware that I have personally received multiple messages from women at the company who were too scared to speak up about this decision. Quite a Bro Culture going on there, sounds like,” Rose wrote.
Arora Apologises For ‘Misguided Attempt to Welcome Guests’
Following the backlash, Arora finally issued an apology for the “misguided attempt to welcome guests with branded lampshade-wearing hostesses.”
“This is unequivocally not the culture we support, or aspire to be. This is neither consistent with our values, nor in line with our actions and aspiration to support and celebrate women in Cybersecurity, and diversity across our business. I apologize for what has been perceived as a tone deaf response, I will remedy that today. While I do that, let me add my part,” his statement read.
“Ultimately the buck stops at me, and I will step up and take responsibility for this error on our part. I would like to assure you that we will double down and ensure this does not happen again, I would urge you and others to treat this like an isolated incident and not see this as something that Palo Alto Networks stands for.”
The tech giant’s marketing chief Unnikrishnan KP also issued an apology calling the decision “tone deaf and in poor taste.”
“Last week at Black Hat in Las Vegas, an unfortunate decision was made at a Palo Alto Networks event to have hostesses wear branded lampshades on their heads. It was tone deaf, in poor taste, and not aligned with our company values or brand campaign. I take full responsibility for this misjudgment and have addressed it with my team and am taking steps to prevent such misguided actions in the future,” read the post on the platform.
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