As reported by the Wall Street Journal (starts in brand new tab), Activision Blizzard chief conformity officer Frances Townsend has stepped down from the woman place. While not any longer a member of staff regarding the business, she’ll still provide its board being an consultant.
The move comes as Microsoft’s $68.7 billion purchase regarding the business gradually works its solution to conclusion, though perhaps not without regulatory hurdles just like a present challenge from the British watchdog (starts in brand new tab).
Townsend had been a controversial figure before joining Activision Blizzard. Inside very early 2000s, through the intrusion of Iraq, she held the career of Assistant to your President for Homeland protection and Counterterrorism under George W. Bush.
The Washington Post (starts in brand new tab) reported in 2004 that Townsend toured the infamous Abu Ghraib jail through the height regarding the United States military’s torturing of prisoners within center (starts in brand new tab). Based on the Post, an officer within jail told United States Army detectives that Townsend pressured him to draw out many better information from prisoners in their capability as mind regarding the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib. Townsend, on her behalf component, denied witnessing punishment of prisoners during the woman trip.
In July of 2021 near to the outbreak regarding the Activision Blizzard controversy (starts in brand new tab), Townsend emailed workers (starts in brand new tab) concerning the allegations contrary to the business. She advertised the Ca Department of Fair Employment and Housing lawsuit “presented a distorted and untrue image of [Activision Blizzard], including factually wrong, old, and from context tales—some from greater than a ten years ago.”
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick later assumed obligation the content regarding the offending e-mail. Townsend, but stepped down from the place sponsoring a ladies’ community within business, and soon after removed the woman Twitter (starts in brand new tab) after sparking debate by sharing articles critical of whistleblowers.
According to Bloomberg (starts in brand new tab), Bobby Kotick published in a e-mail that Townsend “did a exemplary task” during the woman tenure. The WSJ states that Townsend’s previous duties as ethics and conformity officer and business assistant are increasingly being thought by the woman deputies Jen Brewer and Luci Altman correspondingly.
