Vice Suspends Two Top Executives Following Sexual Misconduct Allegations

Vice Media has suspended two of its top executives after a New York Times report last month detailed sexual harassment allegations against them.

The suspension of president Andrew Creighton (pictured above with CEO Shane Smith) and chief digital officer Mike Germano was announced in an internal memo at the company. The following is excerpted from this memo:

The claims regarding Carrot’s current CEO Mike Germano will be investigated by HR with an external investigator, a process that Mike has encouraged, and Mike will be on leave until the investigation is concluded. In the meantime, day-to-day operations of Carrot will still be led by Adam Katzenback, reporting to Ryan Mack. Together, they will be ensuring that the agency services businesses of VICE continue to be best positioned in the market. Expect next steps and further communication from them shortly.

Regarding Andrew Creighton, at the time the situation was reviewed by an independent law firm and the claim was found to lack merit, but the Company agreed to settle the matter in order to avoid the expense and distraction of litigation. As we said last week, there are details in the story that VICE believes were incomplete or misrepresented. As a further step, however, a special committee of VICE’s board is reviewing the facts and will make a recommendation to Sr. Management prior to the January 11th board meeting. In the meantime, Andrew has suggested, and we agree, that he remain out of the office on leave until the recommendation from the committee is made to Sr. management.

In the original NYT report, which was published on December 23, it was alleged that Creighton paid $135,000 in 2016 to a former Vice employee who alleged she was fired after rejecting his romantic advances. Germano was accused of multiple incidences of sexual misconduct, including telling a female employee that he hadn’t wanted to hire her “because he wanted to have sex with her”.

Creighton and Germano were the only two remaining employees at Vice who had been accused of sexual misconduct in the Vice piece. Others, including former Vice News editor Jason Mojica, had already been fired for violating company HR policies.

The Vice memo also tells employees what they plan to do in order to change company culture, including introducing a new head of HR and mandatory sexual harassment training for all employees. They’re also aiming for 50/50 gender representation at all levels across the company by 2020, and total pay equity by the end of 2018.

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV