In a past life, Frances Townsend defended the legal basis for the torture method known as waterboarding George W. Bush’s War on Terror. In a more recent one, she has helped direct Activision Blizzard’s initially unmusical response a major sexual harassment lawsuit from the state of California. Now she resigns as that call of Duty Publisher’s Chief Compliance Officer after less than two years in the position.
CEO Bobby Kotick announced the change in personnel in an email on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal reports. Despite his retirement from that position, Townsend will remain an official advisor to Kotick and to the Activision Blizzard Board of Directors, which Kotick chairs. This shift in the company’s governance structure comes as Microsoft tries to convince regulators to let the publisher buy surveillance 2 and DiabloIV for $69 billion by June 2023.
“She has tirelessly and successfully navigated a challenging time for the company with leadership, conviction and grace,” Kotick wrote in the email The Wall Street Journal. (Last November, over 1,000 employees signed a letter asks him to resign.)
Others may have different opinions. Brought on board to help Activision Blizzard navigate complex global regulations, the former Bush adviser eventually became one of the faces of the company’s reckoning with allegations of sexual discrimination and harassment. Townsend became the messenger for the company’s harsh rebuttal in a California lawsuit alleging wage discrimination, a “fraternity boy” work culture and other issues.
“A recent lawsuit painted a distorted and untrue picture of our company, including factually incorrect, old and out of context stories – some from more than a decade ago.” read an email from her work account, which the company largely defends and denies the claims any legitimacy. It provoked a strike by hundreds of employees at Activision Blizzard and Townsend the following week even started blocking some of them on Twitter after they criticized her for tweeting an anti-whistleblower article from The Atlantic. Eventually, she deleted her Twitter account entirely. However, The Wall Street Journal later reported that the original email from Townsend’s account waives the California lawsuit was actually designed by Kotick.
Activision Blizzard later changed its mind and announced a new set of policies to address workplace issues and an $18 million settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The ABK Worker Alliance group that emerged from the original allegations continues to push for further reform and says how the guidelines will be developed and implemented.
Townsend was not immediately available, and Activision Blizzard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Updated: 9/30/22 10:30 PM ET: Activision Blizzard spokesman Rich George provided this my box with a Copy of Kotick’s email to staff regarding Townsend’s departure, but declined to comment further:
Team,
As we move closer to completing our merger with Microsoft, I would like to share some important updates that we are making to support our continued commitment to excellence in our workplace, compliance and governance.
Effective October 1, Fran Townsend will step into a new role as Senior Counselto myself and the Board. In her current role as EVP of Corporate Affairs, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary, Fran has done truly exceptional work – actually four jobs – with continually increasing responsibilities and an exemplary work ethic. She has tirelessly and successfully navigated a challenging time for the company with leadership, conviction and grace.
Fran has also done an exceptional job of enhancing the strong governance and compliance programs that we have across the business. One of Fran’s key contributions has been talent empowerment and development, and we are pleased to announce that her deputies, Jen Brewer and Luci Altman, will both be promoted, effective October 1st.
Jen Brewer just celebrated her tenth year with the company and is currently Senior Vice President of Ethics and Compliance. Jen is promoted to Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer. Jen has over twenty years of legal and compliance experience. She has long been a key advisor to our senior leadership team, and this well-deserved promotion recognizes her exceptional skills and dedication to making Activision Blizzard the best place to work. Jen will report to Chief Administrative Officer Brian Bulatao while continuing to work closely with myself, Fran, Grant and directly with the Audit and Accountability Committees of the Board.
Fran and Jen are committed to retaining and attracting talent to our world-class compliance team, with a diverse roster of top performers from organizations with leading compliance programs such as Disney, Boeing, KPMG, Walmart, the US Navy and some of the best law firms in the world.
In the ten years that Jen has been a compliance executive at the company, she has overseen and created innovative compliance and reporting programs, including our unique Way2Play Heroes program.
As the leader of our Way2Play team, Jen worked for years with courage and determination to create our unique Way2Play Heroes initiative, which has grown from 75 Heroes to today, with over 140 Heroes ensuring compliance best practices across the organization.
Jen remains passionate about maintaining the most welcoming, inclusive workplace and ensuring continued investment and innovative programs so we remain an example for other companies in our industry.
Luci Altman, currently Senior Vice President of Senior Securities & Corporate Governance, is promoted to Corporate Secretary. Luci joined us last year after more than thirty years of legal experience in private practice and top companies and has been instrumental in ensuring that we maintain the highest standards of corporate governance. Building relationships with teams around the world takes time, and Luci has built strong, trusting relationships across the business during the pandemic, no easy task. Luci continues to play a critical role in completing our merger with Microsoft. While much of Luci’s work takes place behind the scenes, we know that she has played a key role in ensuring we have the very best governance practices. She helped produce our 2021 ESG report, which highlights our achievements in our efforts to improve the environment through key initiatives such as reducing the use of plastic packaging and our social and governance programs, considered best-in-class by independent assessors will. She will continue to ensure we maintain our commitment to excellence across all of our ESG initiatives. Luci will now report to our General Counsel, Grant Dixton.
We will continue to demonstrate our commitment to ensuring our governance and compliance programs are the best practice for our industry, and these personnel changes will help us maintain our momentum in this regard.
We’re fortunate to have world-class professionals like Fran, Jen and Luci on our team – and I couldn’t be more grateful for the tireless work they put in.
Thank you all for your shared commitment to the very best place to work, your passion and your unwavering commitment to improvement that will allow us to continue making the best games in the world.
with appreciation,
Bobby
