Former Anheuser-Busch executive Anson Frericks wrote in the New York Times on Tuesday that the large-scale embrace of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives at his former employer and in corporate America in general was destined for failure.
“The massive corporate embrace of D.E.I. was always destined to fail, in large part because the movement was never well defined to begin with,” Frericks wrote in his Times guest essay, noting that he left the beer giant in 2022. “Anheuser-Busch became the poster child of what went wrong with the D.E.I. movement.”
In the piece, headlined “Working at Anheuser-Busch, I Saw What Went Wrong With the D.E.I. Movement,” Frericks detailed where he thinks the company went wrong in its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, as well as its focus on DEI.
“I believe Anheuser-Busch, like many companies, stands at a crossroads. It can struggle under a polarizing policy, or it can help lead American business back to the principles that made it great in the first place — principles that unite rather than divide, that reward results rather than identity,” Frericks continued.
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Frericks said that when he worked at Anheuser-Busch, he believed the company could make millions if it agreed to distribute canned coffees made by Black Rifle Coffee Company, a veteran-owned company with a very pro-military message.
“The proposal was rejected. It was early 2022, two years after the George Floyd protests, and I was told that being associated with Black Rifle was too politically provocative, especially in progressive circles,” he wrote.
“I should have seen it coming. Many corporations were flexing their credentials in the growing diversity, equity and inclusion movement. But for me, the incident was a particularly telling example of what was going wrong with Anheuser-Busch — and an early sign that too many American corporations had forgotten who their customers were,” Frericks continued.
Frericks noted that the company couldn’t win after Mulvaney went viral. Progressives, in addition to the conservative backlash, were upset with the company for not being more vocal in its support for Mulvaney.
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“But the D.E.I. movement demanded that companies pursue the same progressive goals, regardless of their mission and culture. When Anheuser-Busch embraced D.E.I., the partnership felt inauthentic. And that’s why it backfired,” the former Anheuser-Busch executive wrote.
Anheuser-Busch did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Frericks also described other ways Anheuser-Busch pushed DEI.
“Then the company created annual performance targets linked to the company’s environmental, social and governance strategy, of which D.E.I. was one component, for thousands of employees. It was clear to me that if teams didn’t check the right boxes, managers could be punished. Promotions could be withheld. Bonuses could be lost. That year, senior executives, including me, attended weekly meetings to discuss D.E.I. initiatives,” he wrote.
He said that many companies’ commitment to DEI was “performative,” pointing to how fast they pulled back their DEI policies.
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In a December op-ed for Fox News Digital, Frericks wrote that Trump’s re-election could allow “corporations can once again unapologetically focus on delivering value for shareholders.”
“Companies wasted billions of dollars on stakeholder-favored ESG and DEI programs that didn’t deliver shareholder value, and in many cases, destroyed it. Nor was society any better off. Inflation was high, wage growth was low, and consumer confidence was muted. Society was more polarized than ever heading into the election,” he wrote.
