Greater Boston's Convention and Visitors Bureau is getting blowback for saying there were no qualified candidates of color for an executive position.
The Convention and Visitors Bureau is looking for a new chief operating officer, and its board chairman claimed in a Boston Globe column that there were no experienced people of color who applied for the job. At a public discussion on housing equity Monday night, Massport Director of Diversity Kenneth Turner said he doesn’t believe that.
"Nobody called me for this job, and oh by the way, down the hall from me is another qualified person of color who would equally be qualified for this role," he said, listing off several potential candidates. "So don’t tell me there are no qualified people of color. You didn’t look. And when you got called on it, your knee-jerk response is to say, ‘Oh, well we couldn’t find anybody, even though we tried.’”
Monday night's forum was recorded by WGBH's Forum Network. You can watch the exchange on the Convention and Visitors Bureau here:
The Convention and Visitors Bureau didn't make anyone available for an interview, but a spokesman says the search for a new chief operating officer is continuing.
