Silicon Valley ‘tycoons’ have affairs and affairs one after another… Stay healthy without packing
(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Hong Jeong-gyu = With the dismissal of former CEO Jensen Hwang of the U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor company Nvidia, the 'scandalous history' of CEOs of large U.S. companies is highlighted again.
Nvidia's board of directors announced in a statement on the 12th (local time) that CEO Hwang would immediately resign from his position as president, CEO, and board member. It was revealed that former CEO Hwang had an affair with Alice Hwang, a former executive at Megaspeed, a Singaporean company suspected by U.S. intelligence authorities of being a Chinese spy.
Former CEO Hwang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and grew the company into a leader in the global AI semiconductor market, but as the scandal with Alice Hwang spread, he was forced out after 33 years.
According to media reports such as the New York Times, former CEOs of computer and printer manufacturer HP and famous department store chain Kohl's fell for similar reasons to former CEO Hwang.
Former CEO Mark Hurd, who had grown HP into a powerful technology company, was dismissed by the board of directors in 2010. The grounds for dismissal were that he did not disclose details of the use of company funds and had a 'close personal relationship' with an official from an external contractor. He returned as co-CEO of business software company Oracle in 2014 and died in 2019.
Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, who invited Hurd, who was kicked out of HP, as co-CEO based on personal friendship, is also known to have had romantic relationships with multiple female employees in the past. After going through five divorces, his current wife is from China.
Last year, former Kohl's CEO Ashley Buchanan was fired after allegedly trying to steer a business deal to her lover and a supplier representative. In the same year, Rodney McMullin, former CEO of large grocery chain Kroger, was also fired, and the reason announced was inappropriate 'personal behavior'.
In 2018, former CEO Brian Krzanich of semiconductor company Intel resigned after it was revealed that he had previously had a "mutually consensual relationship" with an employee.
The board of directors of global hamburger chain McDonald's fired former CEO Steve Easterbrook in 2019, saying he had entered into a "mutually consensual relationship" with an employee. Afterwards, another McDonald's employee also reported having a sexual relationship with Easterbrook, and he returned approximately $150 million in cash and stock to the company along with an apology.
The time when the CEOs of Intel and McDonald's resigned in disgrace was the time of the 'MeToo craze'. The direct reason for their resignation was a 'consensual relationship', but in the case of former CEO Easterbrook, there was also a MeToo influence.
At the time, Leslie Moonves, CEO of the media company CBS Corporation, resigned without receiving any severance pay following sexual harassment complaints from several women.
Unlike these CEOs who were driven out due to scandals inside and outside the company, there are also CEOs who survive scandals and survive.
In 2019, American entertainment media continued to report rumors of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' affair. The other person is Lauren Sanchez, a former broadcast journalist, and it is known that both Bezos and Sanchez were dating while they were separated from their respective spouses. Bezos eventually divorced his ex-wife that year, and married Sanchez in June of last year. Bezos remains chairman of Amazon's board of directors.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin divorced his wife in 2015 after living separately for several years. At the time, U.S. media reported that Brin was in an affair with Amanda Rosenberg, a female Google employee who was 14 years his junior. Although Breen has now stepped down from management, he is known to maintain his influence and role within the company.
In the case of Microsoft (MS) founder Bill Gates, who retired early, he was embroiled in suspicions that he had a close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the recently deceased billionaire sex offender, and that he contracted a sexually transmitted disease through an extramarital affair. Bill Gates admitted that he had affairs with a Russian card game player and a Russian nuclear physicist.
There are also cases where CEOs of leading tech companies in Silicon Valley were ousted for reasons that seemed unrelated to infidelity or MeToo.
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was kicked out in 1985 after an internal power struggle and failure to launch new technology, but returned in 2000. Afterwards, he had a legendary tenure as Apple CEO.
OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman was suddenly ousted by the board of directors in 2023, but returned as CEO five days later at the request of friendly forces such as company employees and investors.
