Elon Musk labels ‘people like’ Aviva’s Amanda Blanc ‘racist’ after recruitment comments

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has taken aim at Aviva boss Amanda Blanc following comments she made last year.

Speaking at the Sexism in the City treasury committee on 13 December 2023, Blanc said that “there is no non-diverse hire at Aviva without it being signed off by me and the chief people officer”.

She added: “[It’s] not because I do not trust my team, but because I want to make sure that the process followed for that recruitment has been diverse, has been properly done and is not just a phone call to a mate to say, ’Would you like a job? Pop up and we will fix it up for you’.

“A lot of work has been done to make sure you get those numbers right.”

Musk, who also owns X, formerly known as twitter, took to the social media platform yesterday (17 December 2024) over the comments.

People like Blanc are racists, plain & simple. Ironic name if there ever was one 😂 https://t.co/cmgLHw9I3D

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 17, 2024

He said: “People like Blanc are racists, plain and simple.”

Aviva declined to comment when approached by Insurance Times.

Other comments

Blanc made the comments after sharing “appalling” accounts of harassment, including unwanted sexual advances, women being told their pregnancies were “inconvenient” or being followed into hotel rooms.

Speaking about Aviva, Blanc stressed that the insurer had made efforts to protect female staff and ensure that women’s careers did not suffer, noting that “the person who did the bad leaves the organisation, not the woman”.

“Every individual firm has to be accountable for any allegations such as this and the women in the firm have to know that there is a process for speaking up, that that process will be acted on, that everything will be investigated,” she said.

“And we have had experiences like that at Aviva, where the woman has stayed and man has gone.”