Earlier this week, a team dubbed Black Feminine Anonymous penned a scathing exposé about the alleged conditions of performing at Essence magazine, and demanded that 4 leading execs step down.
On Tuesday, 1 of the execs they named, Richelieu Dennis, resigned as CEO.
In their essay, printed on Medium, the girls claimed that Dennis had a “surface-level determination to Black women” but that he is truly “driven by greed and a debaucherous sexual appetite.”
They also alleged that “he has a background of sleeping with women of all ages on the Sundial staff members [the beauty brand that produces SheaMoisture, and which he sold to Unilever in 2017] … For the ladies who really don’t seemingly consent, he brazenly sexually harasses them at private corporation events.”
At 1st the company denied the allegations, contacting them “unfounded makes an attempt to discredit our brand and assassinate personal character.”
But on Tuesday night time, they despatched out a press launch saying a new interim CEO, Caroline Wanga, expressing it was one particular of a number of actions to “ensure that Essence is the safe haven that we all assume.”
The shift came just after an crisis get in touch with with staff previously in the working day, in which we’re explained to Dennis was dismayed that no a person had achieved out to see if he was all right.
“It was a heated conversation. Staffers ended up angry with the initial statement [accusing the anonymous posters] of lying,” said a source. “They ended up even additional furious at him for asking why no just one checked in on him.”
We’re advised Dennis’ job as CEO was usually intended to be momentary he had just taken more than in March, just after Michelle Ebanks stepped down and moved to the board of Essence Ventures — the place Dennis will keep on being the chair.
The nameless collective also named for her to go away the company, as effectively as the resignations of COO Joy Collins Profet and main written content officer Moana Luu.
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