Two Female CEOs Were Photoshopped Into A GQ “Tech Titans” Photo

Two Female CEOs Were Photoshopped Into A GQ “Tech Titans” Photo

How do you get more women into the world of tech? Easy. Apparently, you just photoshop them in.

A Buzzfeed investigation has found an image in GQ story featured two female CEOs photoshopped into its “Tech Titans” photo, with the original image featuring 15 male Silicon Valley executives.

The photo, which includes LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, was digitally altered to include two female CEOs, Lynn Jurich and Ruzwana Bashir.

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The original image featured 15 tech entrepreneurs during a visit to designer Brunello Cucinelli in Italy. Apparently, the two women were on the trip, but they weren’t around when the photo was taken.

The photoshopped image, which has now been removed, was posted on Brunello Cucinelli’s personal Instagram account on May 30 and was set to serve as the lead image for GQ‘s June 4 story about the “Solomeo Summit”.

Yet after doing a little digging, BuzzFeed found an all-male version of the photo on LinkedIn, which posted two weeks ago by Ferdinando de Bellis, a partner at a communications firm that worked with Cucinelli.

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A representative for Cucinelli said in a statement: “When we realized we didn’t have a shot where all attendees were represented, we added in photos of two female CEOs taken during the weekend.”

“The photos were shared and approved with all the participants including the two women, Lynn Jurich and Ruzwana Bashir, before posting them on Instagram and they also shared the group photo on their own Instagram handles. We meant no harm or had any malicious intent in doing this and we are sorry.”

GQ, however, claimed it had no knowledge of the doctored photo.

The magazine ran an update at the bottom of its story saying it removed the photo, and a spokesperson told Buzzfeed News: “An image provided by a Brunello Cucinelli representative did not meet GQ’s editorial standards. The image had been altered and GQ was not made aware.”




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