It's not only distracting but unnecessary. The English language has a perfectly usable way to avoid gender-specific pronouns: just use the plural. "A good CEO knows his/her values" becomes "a good CEO knows their values".
Or drop the gender altogether: "A good CEO knows their values." Grammar cops hate the use of the collective pronoun where a singular would be more correct, but I see it used often enough that it's slowly working it's way into the English language.
In Ben's case, he's making a political statement, so the use of "her" is appropriate in that instance though.
> it's slowly working it's way into the English language
It's actually been in English for a pretty long time, there is plenty of precedent. The people that complain loudest about grammar "mistakes" are often the least equipped to talk about them.
