Golden Globes group’s chief diversity officer says the HFPA is ready to ‘do the work’
LOS ANGELES — Last month, as part of its ongoing efforts to enact promised “transformational change,” the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group behind the Golden Globes, hired Neil Phillips as its first-ever chief diversity officer.
Phillips, an Aspen Institute Education Entrepreneurship Fellow and a member of the inaugural Echoing Green/Open Society Foundation Black Male Achievement Fellowship, joined the organization after months of HFPA criticism and calls for reform following a Los Angeles Times investigation that revealed the association had no Black members and detailed allegations of financial and ethical lapses within the group.
Phillips’ appointment comes as the HFPA has forged a five-year collaborative partnership with the NAACP. But it also arrives after a string of turbulent incidents for the group, including a leaked email that former eight-term HFPA President Phil Berk sent to the group in April that called Black Lives Matter a “racist hate movement.” Soon after, the association’s initial diversity consultant, USC professor Shaun Harper, resigned.
Phillips spoke with the L.A.
