Priceline’s CEO, Darren Huston, resigned this morning in the wake of allegations that he is involved in an inappropriate relationship with a co-worker under his direct supervision. The company did not disclose who was the object of Hutson’s affections, just that he’d “engaged in activities inconsistent” with what’s expected of Priceline’s C-Suite residents.
Huston has been CEO of the online travel booking company since 2014, and before then, held executive-level positions at Starbucks and Microsoft. Now, he’ll be in different company: He’s the latest in a long line of lusty CEOs who have put their “business” before their business.
Gary Friedman, Restoration Hardware: The company best known for shipping you 20 pound tomes full of bazillion-dollar rare antler chandeliers and nightmarish doll-filled accent pieces, lost its CEO in 2012, after he decided to order from his own catalog, so to speak. Friedman, 54, who is widely credited for bringing the company back from the brink of bankruptcy, and whose official motto was “carpe diem,” had an affair with a 26-year-old junior staffer. (He was restored, despite his misadventures with his hardware, as co-CEO in 2013.)
Brian Dunn, Best Buy: Brian Dunn’s office romance didn’t just cost him his job, it ruined the company’s founder’s reputation. Dunn, who was married with children, resigned when he realized the company was investigating his “personal conduct” with a 29-year-old subordinate. Richard Schultze, Best Buy’s founder, was forced to step down when the same investigation showed that, like the customer service associates in his stores, he was intentionally oblivious to what was going on around him, turning a blind eye to Dunn’s misdeeds.
Richard Nanula, Miramax: Nanula, once thought to be the “next great CEO,” quickly became the Carlos Danger of the corporate world. Posing as a porn star named “Mr. Rich” (subtle), he spent a great deal of his free time making sex tapes with adult actresses at his Malibu estate. The Harvard MBA came to Miramax after stints at Disney (where he rescued Euro Disney from collapse), Starwood Hotels, and Amgen. He was expected to provide focus for Miramax’s film department, which had recently lost the Weinstein brothers, but resigned for “personal reasons” after focusing, instead, on home movies.
Stephen Heyer, Starwood Hotels: Stephen Heyer lost his job in a boardroom battle after an anonymous tipster sent Starwood Hotel’s board of directors a letter outlining Heyer’s alleged libidinous misdeeds. The note said that Heyer had sent suggestive emails to a young, female staffer, and that Heyer had been spotted having a “physical encounter” with a female employee at a nearby restaurant. An investigation appeared to confirm the emails’ existence, but Heyer denies any wrongdoing. The board, which was concerned about his performance in other areas apparently, used the note as a method of “changing leadership” anyway.
Harry C. Stonecipher, Boeing: Harry Stonecipher came out of retirement to lead Boeing into a new era of responsibility, even authoring and enacting a stringent code of conduct that he said would apply to everyone in the company, including himself. He even signed a pledge. Unfortunately, during the signing ceremony, he caught the eye of a female executive named Deborah Peabody. Things got saucy, and Stonecipher was forced to resign (the board cited the code of conduct). The affair became public when his wife filed for divorce.
Mark Hurd, Hewlett Packard: The current CEO of Oracle was booted from Carly Fiorina’s former company after he admitted to a relationship with a female contractor. Apparently, the romance itself wasn’t technically illicit under the company’s rule book, but Hurt complicated the matter by committing a worse sin: submitting incorrect and inaccurate paperwork to the company’s HR department. When they investigated his expense reports, they found he’d fudged them to hide the affair.
Dov Charney, American Apparel: Were it not for Mr. Rich (see above), Dov Charney would easily be the weirdest CEO on this list. American Apparel finally fired Charney in 2014 (twice, actually), after enduring years of lawsuits and complaints over Charney’s “management style,” which involved walking around in his underwear (there’s footage), calling female employees sluts, forcing applicants to submit to head-to-toe photo sessions, and “multiple” workplace “romances.”
Charles Phillips, Oracle: Charles Phillips, CEO of Oracle, didn’t have an affair with a subordinate — he picked a writer/actress instead — or ultimately lose his top job, but his wandering eye still cost him his reputation. After trying to break off his eight-year affair with YaVaughnie Wilkins, the married tech phenom and member of President Obama’s economic team, found himself on the receiving end of a nuclear assault. Wilkins took out billboards near Times Square in NYC advertising the pair’s illicit relationship and invited interested parties to visit a website where she’d cataloged eight years of photos (including a pic of the pair at the president’s inauguration).
Of course, this list barely scratches the surface of romantic misdeeds in the business world. Of late, the tech sector, in particular, has faced a host of problems stemming from sexual harassment allegations. Executives at Yahoo, RadiumOne, GitHub, and Tindr have all faced either accusations or litigation pursuant to some claim of inappropriate behavior.
It sounds like there might need to be an addition to the MBA curriculum: How to keep it in your pants in the workplace.
