K-STREET, 10,000 FEET: How corporations try and navigate the GOP's opposition to DEI policies

THE LOWDOWN:

• As corporate America grapples with whether and how much to embrace Pride Month, one corporation is taking an interesting strategy: warning investors about the financial risks of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives while simultaneously seeming to welcome them.

• Constellation Brands Inc., one of the leading international producers of beer, wine, and spirits, including Modelo and Corona, warned its investors, as it is legally required to do, that there are financial risks to stockholders to the implementation of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies.

• However, Constellation seems to run afoul of its own warnings. The company recently announced the onboarding of a new chief human resources officer, Paula Erickson, who came to Constellation directly from a different beverage company that has no shortage of DEI policies of its own.

• This hire comes on the heels of Constellation’s public retreat from its own DEI efforts, a move prompted by conservative activist Robby Starbuck’s March 2025 exposé on X, which criticized the company’s “woke” policies.

As corporate America grapples with whether and how much to embrace Pride Month, one corporation is taking an interesting strategy: warning investors about the financial risks of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives while simultaneously seeming to welcome them.

Constellation Brands Inc., one of the leading international producers of beer, wine, and spirits, including Modelo and Corona, warned its investors, as it is legally required to do, that there are financial risks to stockholders to the implementation of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies.

CSR infamously overlaps with and includes DEI initiatives. This warning is a sharp one amid the Republican Party’s federal government trifecta and no love lost for DEI policies, ideologies, and procedures.

However, Constellation seems to run afoul of its own warnings. The company recently announced the onboarding of a new chief human resources officer, Paula Erickson, who came to Constellation directly from a different beverage company that has no shortage of DEI policies of its own.

Erickson boasted on her LinkedIn profile about how she “couldn't be more proud of our [team] as we embed diversity, equity and inclusion in everything we do.”

“To receive the Equality 100 Award for earning a 100 score in the @Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index for the third straight year is such an honor!” Erickson said.

In a second LinkedIn post obtained by the Washington Reporter, Erickson reshared a post recognizing how her former employer earned a 100 percent score on Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for LGBTQ-inclusive workplace policies and practices, writing that she is “so proud of this great recognition.”

This hire comes on the heels of Constellation’s public retreat from its own DEI efforts, a move prompted by conservative activist Robby Starbuck’s March 2025 exposé on X, which criticized the company’s “woke” policies.

Following this expose by Starbuck, Bloomberg reported that “Constellation Brands Inc., the company behind Modelo Especial and Corona beer, is watering down its supplier diversity program and renaming its DEI team.”

Constellation did not respond to a request for comment.