Sean Rad, the co-founder and, until recently, CEO of dating app Tinder, has been demoted from his position in the wake of a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit brought by another of the company’s co-founders.
Rolling Stone report that, in September of this year, Tinder and its parent company IAC settled a lawsuit with co-founder and former executive Whitney Wolfe, who claimed wrongdoing on the part of Rad and another executive, Justin Mateen.
Wolfe’s suit alleged that her former boyfriend Mateen had sent her “a barrage” of sexist, racist and otherwise creepy and inappropriate emails and text messages, and that he and CEO Rad “removed her title as co-founder because of her gender.”
Tinder denied the allegations, before settling out of court. Mateen was suspended from his position and later resigned, while Rad has now been demoted.
Even though the former CEO’s relationship with Tinder could now be classified as “complicated”, the pair will remain friends with benefits. It has been reported that the 28-year-old, who is on the board of the company, will stay on as its president.
Rad himself, who developed the popular dating app while working for the IAC-owned Hatch Labs, allegedly has something of a troubled relationship with Tinder’s parent company.
An anonymous source has claimed that the lawsuit gave IAC “an out” to demote him. Rad attempted to dissuade them from stripping him of the title of CEO, before eventually negotiating his current position.
IAC say that Rad is a “great product person”, and that his new role will allow him to “focus more on Tinder as a product”.
Tinder is reportedly about to launch a new pay service called “Tinder Plus”, which will allow users to check out matches in other countries, and will offer an “undo” button in case users happen to regret their swipes.
Photo: Steve Jennings via Getty Images
