The Silicon Valley Community Foundation Board of Directors said Thursday it has placed its chief executive, Emmett Carson, on paid administrative leave. It comes amid an investigation, initiated by the board, into allegations of misconduct by Carson’s recently departed No. 2 executive, Mari Ellen Loijens, as well as broader workplace-culture problems at the wealthy California foundation.
“That investigation will be thorough, and the board remains committed to taking all necessary actions once it has concluded to ensure that the Silicon Valley Community Foundation thrives today and for many years into the future,” the board said in a statement.
Greg Avis, a founding board member and former board chair, has been appointed interim CEO, the trustees said.
“The board is confident in his ability to steward SVCF through this challenging time and to help keep a keen eye on our forward progression and mission to serve our donors and community,” the board said of Avis, a managing partner at investment firm Bangtail Partners.
Carson did not respond to requests for comment from the Chronicle on Thursday afternoon. He has led the foundation, which has $13.5 billion in assets, since its inception in 2007 with the merger of two existing organizations, the Community Foundation Silicon Valley and the Peninsula Community Foundation.
On Thursday, one major foundation donor described the decision as the right one in an email to the Chronicle.
“The only thing surprising to me is that it didn’t happen sooner,” said Steve Kirsch, who maintains a multimillion dollar donor-advised fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Pleas From Employees
The move by the board came the day after dozens of current foundation employees called on the board to suspend Carson. On Wednesday, 65 employees — roughly half the staff — addressed a letter to the board stating that to “change our culture and restore integrity to this organization,” it needed to remove those responsible for a workplace they described as rife with fear.
The letter was submitted anonymously, with employees signing by position and organizational division. The Chronicle verified the legitimacy of the letter with a current staff member who signed it and with two former staff members with direct knowledge of the letter. The current employees said in the letter they chose to sign anonymously because they were afraid of retaliation.
“We think it’s critical to acknowledge that some of our colleagues declined to sign this statement, many out of fear of retaliation and others because the requests did not align with their vision for the future of this organization,” the letter states.
In addition to Carson, the current employees called for the foundation’s vice president for talent, recruitment, and culture, Daiva Natochy, to be put on leave. The letter also states that an investigation underway at the foundation — set in motion after public allegations of inappropriate conduct by now-departed executive Mari Ellen Loijens — should be expanded to include Carson, Natochy, and Paul Velaski, chief operating officer and chief financial officer. The letter did not allege misconduct by Carson, Natochy, or Velaski but did name the executives as being “responsible for this toxicity at SVCF.”
“We firmly believe that their continued presence on the leadership team will only worsen the culture we need to rebuild,” the letter states.
The letter asked that the Board of Directors provide a response by close of business on Thursday.
The board statement on placing Carson on leave on Thursday did not mention Natochy or Velaski. Requests made by the Chronicle for comment from Natochy and Velaski went unanswered on Thursday. Loijens has also not responded to repeated requests for comment.
Former Workers Seek CEO Firing
In a second letter, also sent Wednesday to the Board of Directors, 25 former foundation employees said Carson should be fired.
“We believe that Emmett Carson, president and CEO, should be terminated immediately,” the letter from the former employees stated. “As the leader of the organization and the culture, Emmett did not address Mari Ellen’s inappropriate behavior and permitted the abuse to continue for years.”
The former employees signed by name and by the titles they held while they worked at the foundation. It included individuals who worked in development, corporate philanthropy, marketing, and finance. Some of the people who signed had already publicly criticized the workplace culture at the foundation and executives’ failure to address it, while others had not previously spoken publicly. The Chronicle confirmed the legitimacy of the letter with two individuals who signed it.
Like the current employees, the former employees said in their letter that they were fearful while employed at the foundation to raise issues with the board or beyond. Their aim, the former employees said, was to make sure that “abuse and mistreatment never happens again within the walls of SVCF.”
In addition to asking that Carson be fired, the former employees called on the board to provide written assurance to current and past staff members that any statements made as part of the investigation will remain confidential and not be used against them. In their letter, the former employees also said that the complete results of the investigation should be made available to any donor or current or past employee who requests a copy.
Outside Law Firms Investigate
With $13.5 billion in assets, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the third-largest foundation — private or community — in the country.
Last week, the Board of Directors said it had hired an outside law firm to investigate allegations of misconduct by Loijens. The chief business, development, and brand officer was a star fundraiser and worked closely with Carson to raise billions of dollars from some of the Bay Area’s richest tech titans, including Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan and Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna.
But numerous people who worked with Loijens at the foundation said she was verbally and emotionally abusive for years, publicly berating and belittling colleagues and routinely making comments that were sexual in nature, among other things. Loijens resigned on April 19, one day after the Chronicle reported on the allegations.
In interviews with the Chronicle and in the two letters sent to the Board of Directors on Wednesday, current and former foundation employees said senior leaders, including Carson, were aware of Loijens’s conduct and did nothing to stop it.
This week, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation Board of Directors, said in a statement that it would expand the scope of the investigation, which was initially to focus on Loijens. The foundation also hired a second law firm to help with the inquiry.
“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 on Tuesday. “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.”
