Time’s Up president and CEO Tina Tchen said Monday that it’s not her “intention” to resign from her post after a New York Times story over the weekend reported “turmoil” at the organization.
Tchen on Monday met with other Time’s Up leaders and founding members to discuss some of the changes ahead in order to address the recent controversy, but said after the meeting that she was still committed to leading the group and that she further has the support of others within the organization.
“It’s not my intention to resign as President and CEO of Time’s Up,” Tchen told Deadline Monday. “I still deeply believe in the vision and the mission of the organization and am committed to doing the work to be the leader the organization and our communities need and deserve.”
A representative for Time’s Up did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
The Times exposé in The New York Times revealed conflicts of interest within the organization and that the organization’s survival was privately being questioned by some board members following the reveal that several top Time’s Up leaders, including Tchen, had advised New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he faced multiple sexual harassment accusations that led to his abrupt resignation earlier this month.
Tchen and Time’s Up chairwoman Roberta Kaplan were named in an open letter to the advocacy organization from a group of survivors, saying it is “failing the survivor community.” Kaplan represented former top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa as New York Attorney General Letitia James looked into the accusations of misconduct against the governor. James’ report found Cuomo harassed at least 11 women. Kaplan subsequently resigned.
Tchen over the weekend detailed the steps Time’s Up was taking to address the issues, including hiring “an outside, independent expert” to lead a restructuring of the group with “input from survivors, supporters, critics and partners.”
“While we may not agree with every assertion made by the publication, we respect journalism as one of the many ways organizations working to advance systemic change are held accountable by their communities,” Tchen wrote in a series of tweets on Sunday. “We see this reporting as an opportunity to glean more insights and feedback from those who have been impacted by our organization, and we value hearing from those with varying opinions across our vast community.”
Since then, other survivors of sexual trauma spoke out about Tchen and Time’s Up, including music executive Drew Dixon, who said that Tchen “manipulated me like a powerless chess piece without regard for my agency as a rape survivor,” and that the organization did not support the documentary “On the Record” in which she details her accusations of assault against hip-hop music mogul Russell Simmons.
Deadline first reported the news.
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