Essence changes CEO amid allegations of toxic work culture
6th July 2020 · 0 Comments
Essence Communications, Inc. has named Caroline Wanga as the new, temporary CEO following the June 28 publication of an open letter citing allegations of mistreatment and abuse of Black female employees by the company’s owner and other top-level executives.
In the letter published to online content platform Medium under the byline “Black Female Anonymous,” the author demands the immediate resignation of several of the company’s top executives, including owner and former CEO Richelieu Dennis, former Essence Communications CEO Michele Ebanks, and others.
“We are #BlackFemaleAnony-mous. We present ourselves under the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, intimidation and the maligning of our media careers,” the letter begins. “We demand the immediate resignation of Essence Ventures owner and Chief Executive Officer Richelieu Dennis, Essence Ventures board member and former Essence Communications CEO Michelle Ebanks, Chief Operating Officer Joy Collins Profet, and Chief Content Officer Moana Luu.”
A link to a Change.org petition appears in the post calling for signatures in support of the call for their resignations.
In March 2020, Ebanks stepped down from the CEO role of Essence Communications, Inc., which runs the magazine, to pursue a position at parent company Essence Ventures. According to the publication, the process of finding a permanent CEO was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wanga, who joined Essence in early June 2020 to serve as the chief growth officer, has now taken the reins as interim CEO as of July 1, 2020, Essence announced last week. Wanga comes to the publication from Target, where she served as that company’s diversity and inclusion officer.
According to early news reports last week, Wanga was reportedly replacing Dennis as the interim CEO following Ebanks’ departure; however, Essence released a statement last Thursday (July 2) saying that was not the case.
“There was no interim CEO at ESSENCE Communications, Inc. (ECI), following the departure of Michelle Ebanks on March 31 until Richelieu Dennis appointed Caroline Wanga to this position on July 1. As owner, Dennis helped to lead the team along with the ECI senior leadership team, but never took on the roles or responsibilities of CEO. So he never stepped down from, resigned from or was replaced in any role,” a statement released to media reads.
The new leadership was announced mere days after Essence refuted the letter’s claims of a toxic environment, saying “the accusations are false and we fully deny them.” Essence called the allegations “unfounded attempts to discredit our brand and assassinate personal character.”
In its response, which appears on its website, Essence asserted, “Facts will always matter, and we are not afraid of the truth. The allegations and mischaracterizations throughout – whether of pay inequity, intimidation, and otherwise – are unfounded attempts to discredit our brand and assassinate personal character. Further, accusations of sexual harassment or misconduct are extremely serious matters, and we fully understand the gravity of the implications.”
The letter claims that Dennis, founder and former owner of popular hair care brand SheaMoisture, along with Ebanks, Collins Profet and Luu, “collaboratively immortalize an extremely unhealthy work culture.”
According to the letter, the company suffered loses of Black female talent due to its toxic culture, including allegations of pay inequity, sexual harassment, intimidation and corporate bullying:
“Scores of talented Black women have been either wrongfully laid off or forced to resign from the company in the past two years. Essence’s C-suite leadership team strategically tells the market it ‘serves Black women deeply’ under the safe seal of 100% Black ownership, but for the Black women who makeup over 80% of the company’s workforce, they are systematically suppressed by pay inequity, sexual harassment, corporate bullying, intimidation, colorism and classism.”
The letter also calls on sponsors to cease doing business with Essence until new leadership has been installed.
“We are calling for AT&T, Coca Cola, Chase Bank, Ford, McDonalds, Procter & Gamble, Walmart and Warner Media to immediately eliminate all active or future sponsorships and media buys at Essence Ventures until the company is under new leadership.”
Essence magazine was founded by four Black businessmen and began publishing in 1970 to cater to Black women, who were underrepresented in other national media. In 2000, Time Inc. acquired 49 percent of the company, and by 2005 had purchased the remaining 51 percent. In 2018, Dennis purchased Essence Communications from Time Inc. for an undisclosed amount.
This article originally published in the July 6, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
