The founder of tech company CS Disco has been forced to quit his role as CEO after being accused of forcing meat into the face of a female colleague and sexually harassing her.
Kiwi Camara, who founded the company worth over $427million (£348million), allegedly thrusted roasted meat into a young female worker’s face and told her to “eat like an animal”.
This took place on a night out where Camara allegedly encouraged his staff to have shots of tequila before taking some of them to dinner at Austin’s Peacock Mediterranean Grill, where the alleged harassment took place.
Reportedly, Camara created a work environment where his 661 strong workforce were encouraged to go on nights out with the CEO where he would pressure them to drink, telling staff that he would fire them if they “don’t do things (his) way”.
After attempting to force feed the employee, Camara allegedly groped her and tried to coerce her back to his $4 million condo, but Camara reportedly stopped once colleagues intervened.
After the night, Camara’s behaviour was reported to HR, catalysing an external probe from the law firm Cooley LLP. As a result, Camara formally resigned from his role, forfeiting stock in his own company once worth $110million (£89.8million).
These allegations come after former accusations that the tech boss would deliberately fill positions with women and screen female candidates through assessing their photos only.
Camara, a child prodigy who left school at the age of 14 and received a computer science degree at the age of 16, is the youngest ever graduate to have come out of Harvard, leaving the law university at the age of 19. He then founded CS Disco, a software that helps lawyers organise documents, in 2013.
A board member at CS Disco, Scott Hill, has taken the place of interim CEO upon Camara’s resignation.
Sexual harassment in the workplace
A recent poll from the TUC revealed that three-in-five women say they have experienced harassment at work, rising to two-in-three amongst women aged 25 to 34.
The research found that these cases weren’t isolated situations with 57% of women saying they’ve experienced three or more incidents of bullying at work.
The study was published to encourage MPs not to backtrack on the Worker Protection Bill, a bill that would introduce preventative duties on employers to tackle sexual harassment in the workplace. However, this bill was watered down, and employers will no longer be liable for harassment of their employees by third parties.
As a result, HR holds even more responsibility to ensure appropriate behaviour exists in the workplace and female workers are continuing to be protected.
