Confederation of British Industry (CBI) director general Tony Danker has been sacked with immediate effect following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment at the employers’ organisation.
He will be replaced by Rain Newton-Smith, the UK lobby group’s former chief economist, who will return as director general after a brief spell as a managing director for policy at Barclays.
The dismissal of Danker on Tuesday followed an investigation by law firm Fox Williams, which has rocked the business organisation and spawned further allegations that do not relate to Danker.
Three other CBI employees have now been suspended pending further investigation into several allegations, the CBI confirmed.
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The CBI said the allegations in recent weeks had been “devastating” for the organisation and that Danker’s conduct had fallen “short of that expected of the director general”.
The report that led to Danker’s sacking has not been published. “Due to the legal confidentiality owed to all parties to the report, we cannot comment or share details of it,” the CBI said.
In a statement, it added: “We apologise to the victims of this organisational failure, including those impacted by the revulsion we have all felt at hearing their stories. Nobody should feel unsafe in their workplace.”
A former female CBI staffer who had previously raised a complaint over an inappropriate comment about her appearance by a senior CBI figure welcomed the appointment of the new director general.
“The board finally found its guts. Rain Newton-Smith will have the confidence of the staff and the members who know her to be on the right side of sexual misconduct issues,” she said.
Another former employee, who raised concerns with the organisation’s human resources department over the treatment of junior staff by more senior managers, was less convinced. She told the Financial Times: “The hiring of Rain is pretty much a continuation of the old order, which is an interesting thing to do. She was sitting on the executive committee the entire time a lot of this stuff was going on.”
Newton-Smith said in a statement that it was a “huge privilege” to be asked to return to the CBI and that she was determined to lead the organisation at such a challenging time. “I want the CBI to be an organisation of which we can all be proud,” she added.
Before joining the CBI in 2014, Newton-Smith was head of emerging markets at the Oxford Economics consultancy, where she was the lead expert on China. Before that, she spent nine years at the Bank of England where she was also seconded for a period to the IMF in Washington DC.
She takes over the CBI following weeks of bruising allegations about a culture of sexual harassment at the CBI, including an allegation of rape at a 2019 staff party. The organisation has cancelled all its external events, including its prestigious annual dinner, as it battles to reestablish confidence.
Danker stepped aside voluntarily last month following the original complaint against him, which was followed by a second round of sexual misconduct allegations reported by The Guardian newspaper. They said that more than a dozen women had come forward with allegations of workplace misconduct by senior CBI executives. These allegations are the subject of a continuing investigation by Fox Williams. Pending its conclusion, the CBI said it was liaising with the police and would co-operate fully with any police investigations.
Danker did not immediately respond to a request for comment but on Tuesday he tweeted that while he recognised “the intense publicity the CBI has suffered following the revelations of awful events that occurred before my time in office”, he was “nevertheless shocked to learn” that he had been “dismissed from the CBI, instead of being invited to put my position forward as was originally confirmed”.
He added: “Many of the allegations against me have been distorted, but I recognise that I unintentionally made a number of colleagues feel uncomfortable and I am truly sorry about that.”
The organisation pledged to hold a “root-and-branch” review of its organisational culture and the system for employees to make complaints, and would look to hire a new chief people officer to manage workplace conduct and culture.
The CBI’s struggle to draw a line under the allegations has caused the UK government and the lobby group’s members, which include the biggest names in British business, to distance themselves from the organisation, with several reviewing their membership. Downing Street said on Tuesday that ministerial engagements with the CBI would remain paused pending the outcome of ongoing investigations.
One CBI member said it remained to be seen whether Tuesday’s announcement would lead to the desired reset.
They described Newton-Smith as a “good, safe choice” whose commitment to diversity and inclusion was very strong, but questioned whether bringing in “a fresh pair of eyes” would have been better for external perception.
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“Tony [Danker] had to go, so that’s decisive,” the member said. “But I can’t see anything else much in the statement. I don’t think it’s over. Lots of old CBI enemies are having their say, but it’ll carry on. The CBI is wounded for now and there is plenty of potential to come back if they get it right. Obviously, if they get it wrong, it will be harder.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023
