Of course he did. It's like Ukip claiming not to be racist. The most generous view is that they don't realise that what they advocate is discriminatory or disproportionately affecting particular demographics.
Re: Ukip and racism, there is a lot of political acts to provide context that can invalidate (or not [0])
their statements. As for this guy, his memo should be considered on it's own (in good faith) for lack of outside context about the author.
I do not understand how what he actually advocates could be considered discriminatory. It seems to me that it would indeed "disproportionately affect particular demographics", but in a good way by making sure that no https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkson%27s_paradox could induce any skill/gender bias in the workforce.