SHRM Tests the Limits of ‘Viewpoint Diversity’ 

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world’s largest HR association, is featuring conservative activist Robby Starbuck as a speaker for its Blueprint 2025 conference, which runs October 26 to 29 in Louisville, Kentucky.  

Starbuck is a vocal critic of DEI and corporate diversity programs. Meta hired Starbuck as an advisor in August after settling a lawsuit in which Starbuck alleged the company’s AI chatbot falsely asserted he participated in the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The SHRM session, titled “Listening Across Lines,” pairs Starbuck with Van Jones, a CNN commentator. SHRM President Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. will moderate.

“Sure, some say I’m divisive but many others don’t, and they appreciate me being their voice,” Starbuck, who is Latino, told the Wall Street . “Businesses need to understand the entire country, not just one narrow worldview that became dominant in HR circles.” Starbuck did not respond to a request for comment from Skift.  

Taylor said the session reflects SHRM’s commitment to viewpoint diversity, which he called “one of the major, but often under-discussed, dimensions of workplace diversity.” He emphasized the association’s role is not to endorse specific views but to “model civility, encourage open-mindedness, and facilitate meaningful progress through informed conversation.”

Members Voice Concerns

Over a hundred SHRM members took to LinkedIn to express their outrage about including Starbuck in the conference. 

“Inviting Robby Starbuck, someone with little demonstrated background or competence in diversity, equity, and inclusion, to speak at a major event sends a confusing and troubling message to members,” said Effenus Henderson, president and CEO of HenderWorks Consulting and co-director of the Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion (ISDI).

HR exec Natalie Permenter said SHRM’s argument for “viewpoint diversity” falls flat.

“There’s a fundamental difference between engaging diverse perspectives and platforming rhetoric that actively undermines inclusion, equity, and belonging. Engaging diverse perspectives is about healthy debate. Platforming Robby Starbuck is about legitimizing harm,” said Permenter. 

In an open letter titled, “Qualifications Matter, Except, Apparently, on SHRM’s Biggest Stage,” attorney Shari Dunn wrote, “A former music-video director with zero training, scholarship, or practice in DEI is being amplified by the nation’s largest HR association to opine on the very people HR systems routinely exclude. That’s not dialogue — that’s malpractice.”

”Some early supporters of the SHRM session reconsidered their stance. Dr. Zippy Abla, founder and CEO of Zippy Consulting Group, initially commented supportively on the event without researching all the speakers involved. “After colleagues educated me about Robby Starbuck’s documented statements and actions, I realized I had made a significant error in judgment. I believe there’s an important distinction between fostering diverse dialogue and platforming harmful ideologies, and I failed to make that distinction initially,” Abla said.

Members have pulled out of the conference and some have canceled their SHRM membership. 

Mikki Forbes, co-founder and COO of Forbes Consulting, is one. “Members look to SHRM for credibility, guidance, and a sense of shared professional identity. Inviting someone whose reputation is rooted more in political controversy than advancing HR practices weakens that trust,” said Forbes.

Wendy Hernández, CEO and founder of LionsPride Assistant, a Latina-led firm focused on who gets a seat at the executive support table, canceled her SHRM membership and will not be attending the conference. “Starbuck brags about pressuring brands to roll back commitments that protect marginalized employees. That rhetoric is not a harmless opinion. It is an open invitation for HR leaders to adopt hostility as policy,” she said. “ By giving him a stage, SHRM tells every professional of color in that room that their safety and belonging are negotiable. That is reckless leadership and it puts organizations at both legal and moral risk.”

HR leader Allison Mairena stopped her SHRM membership in 2021. “I felt their offering no longer provided value to progressive HR leaders,” she said. 

Including Starbuck as a speaker is a mistake, she said. “SHRM is trying to frame this as diverse perspectives, but choosing Starbuck signals that inclusion is a topic up for debate rather than a workplace necessity.”

In an interview with the Wall Street , Taylor said SHRM hasn’t experienced a drop in membership. However, attendance at this year’s conference is lower than in past years, but he said other diversity-related conventions have also experienced declines in interest.

Shifting Views on DEI

The controversy follows SHRM’s decision last year to drop “equity” from its DEI framework, now referring to it as inclusion and diversity (I&D). The change reflects broader shifts in corporate America since President Donald Trump’s return to office, when executive orders targeting diversity programs prompted companies to reassess DEI initiatives.

Mairena was among observers who saw SHRM’s pivot as politically motivated. “When Biden was president, they aimed to champion DEI. As SHRM’s CEO angled for influence with the Department of Labor under Trump, they shifted strategies to drop equity from their framework.”

Henderson called this “a retreat from one of the most critical dimensions of the work,” noting without equity, “diversity and inclusion become hollow concepts, attractive on the surface but disconnected from justice and outcomes.”