Costco board member defends DEI practices, rebukes companies scrapping policies [Video]

A Costco board member has taken aim at companies rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, calling for businesses to “maximize” DEI instead as the wholesaler faces pressure to join the growing list of brands ditching the controversial practice.

Jeff Raikes, co-founder of the Raikes Foundation and former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has served on Costco’s board of directors since 2008, according to Costco’s corporate website. Raikes and other board members have come under scrutiny in recent days after they shut down a shareholder request to dismantle DEI internally and called on other shareholders to vote against the proposal seeking to eliminate Costco’s DEI program in an upcoming meeting.

The board’s position came as a surprise to some, in light of a recent corporate trend that’s spurred a widespread abandonment of DEI policies. But a Fox News Digital assessment of Raikes’ online history revealed a staunch proponent of …