Note: This article was updated April 25 at 11:30 a.m. to include comments by Silicon Valley Community Foundation Emmett Carson at a leadership event in Cape Coral, Fla.
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation Board of Directors has hired an additional high-profile law firm to expand the scope of an investigation into allegations of workplace misconduct by the community foundation’s former No. 2 executive.
It comes as at least one major donor is calling for the foundation’s CEO, Emmett Carson, to step down or be removed for failing to address the problem sufficiently.
“I think no matter what, the board has to fire Emmett,” Steve Kirsch, a tech entrepreneur and longtime foundation donor, said in an interview with the Chronicle on Monday.
The Board of Directors said in a statement Tuesday it is committed to taking action based on the investigation findings. Boies Schiller Flexner joins law firm Thompson Hine, which the foundation said last week that it had hired to look into the claims.
“While that investigation was first launched following allegations of sexual harassment by one individual, it has since become clear that we may have a larger culture issue that needs to be addressed,” the board said in its statement. “This includes evaluating how teams are managed, what type of working environment is being fostered, and confirming that we are the type of organization where reports of misconduct are met with swift and just action.”
The board also named members of a special committee to lead its work.
Additional Reports
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s top fundraiser, Mari Ellen Loijens, resigned last Thursday, one day after the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported accounts by more than a dozen former foundation employees in which they described Loijens as routinely abusive and inappropriate. The behavior by the foundation executive included public berating and belittling of foundation staff, comments about individuals’ physical appearance, and comments that were sexual in nature.
Since publishing its report, the Chronicle has been contacted by multiple additional current and former foundation staff members who confirmed the reporting and offered additional information and examples of misconduct by Loijens. The Chronicle has not verified each of their statements for accuracy.
With $13.5 billion in assets, the Silicon Valley community fund is one of the country’s biggest, and most watched, foundations. In public statements, CEO Emmett Carson has said the organization does not “tolerate inappropriate behavior of any kind.”
But former foundation employees have told the Chronicle that Loijens’s misbehavior was widely known, including by Carson, and that they made reports to the foundation’s human-resources department. Carson was known to rebuff or shut down conversations about Loijens’s conduct, former employees say.
“It was well-known among all of SVCF leadership that Emmett did not entertain anyone complaining about Mari Ellen,” said Rebecca Dupras, a former vice president for development. “Anytime I tried to bring it up with Emmett, he immediately changed the subject. As a CEO, he either knew or should have known. He should have asked questions, particularly as he saw the turnover in her division and saw the exit interviews from staff.”
Carson did not respond to requests for comment.
On Tuesday, the Southwest Florida newspaper the News-Press, reported that Carson was the keynote speaker at a three-day leadership event hosted by the Cape Coral Community Foundation. Carson spoke about the differences between private and community foundations, according to the News-Press, and the global attitudes of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s 2,000 donors.
“Silicon Valley is a state of mind, not just a place,” Carson said at the event.
‘Inexcusable’ Response
In addition to speaking with the Chronicle, the major foundation donor, Kirsch, called for the board to “remedy” the situation in a letter to the editor of the San Jose Mercury News, published Tuesday. Kirsch, who maintains a multimillion-dollar donor-advised fund at the community foundation, said that in the past he had heard staff describe Loijens as problematic or troublesome. But he never thought much of it or felt compelled to learn more, he says. His working experience with the foundation has been positive, he added.
But with the recent reports, he said, “there are too many credible people bringing up these accusations to be ignored.” He said in recent days he spoke directly to a current foundation employee who confirmed to him the accounts reported by the Chronicle. Kirsch said the staff person told him employees were too frightened to speak up sooner.
Among other things, the high turnover in the staff who worked directly with Loijens should have triggered serious questions by the CEO, Kirsch noted. Either Carson knew about Loijens’s behavior and did nothing about it and is now pretending as if reports of her misconduct are new information, Kirsch said, “or he didn’t know about it, in which case that is inexcusable.”
Either way, he said, the CEO was not doing his job.
Kirsch said he emailed Carson directly on Friday and told him he should resign. Kirsch said he has also communicated with board members, who thanked him for his input and said they would execute an investigation. He said he would consider moving his donor-advised-fund money elsewhere if the right actions are not taken.
He added: “Right now, I’m waiting to see what the board does.”
