Activision Blizzard, the company behind popular games like Call of Duty, said on Tuesday that it was hiring two executives, including a new head of human resources, as part of an effort to build a more inclusive workplace and grow revenue.
Julie Hodges, a senior vice president at the Walt Disney Company, will become Activision’s new chief people officer, the company said in a statement. Ms. Hodges will replace Claudine Naughton, who will leave later this month “to pursue other interests,” the company said.
Sandeep Dube, a senior vice president at Delta Air Lines, will also join Activision, filling the role of chief commercial officer. That job has been vacant since March.
In July, Activision was sued by a California employment agency, which said the company had fostered a “frat boy workplace culture” in which women were routinely harassed and discriminated against. The lawsuit caused an uproar, with current and former employees speaking out online against misconduct and rallying outside an Activision office.
Activision’s chief executive, Bobby Kotick, apologized for failing to “provide the right empathy and understanding” in the company’s initial response to the lawsuit.
J. Allen Brack, the head of Activision’s Blizzard Entertainment subsidiary, where many of the accusations in the lawsuit were centered, stepped down in August. Blizzard’s head of human resources, Jesse Meschuk, also left.
Activision said Ms. Hodges would “lead all aspects of human resources, including diversity, equity and inclusion, talent acquisition, employee experience, learning and development, compensation and benefits, and work force planning.”
Ms. Hodges said in the statement that she shared “the company’s belief that a work environment should welcome all perspectives, experiences and backgrounds.”
“I couldn’t be more excited to join this team and work together to continue building our inclusive culture and to expand our audiences,” Mr. Dube said in the statement.
Activision is under continued scrutiny. The Communications Workers of America, a labor union, filed a complaint last week with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, accusing Activision of violating labor law by making coercive rules, actions and statements, as well as through interrogation. The complaint was reported earlier by Bloomberg.
Activision did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
