Eyal Gutentag, the chief marketing officer of the employment job site ZipRecruiter, has left the company following a BuzzFeed News story containing new details of alleged sexual misconduct at a previous job, BuzzFeed News has learned. Some ZipRecruiter employees learned of Gutentag’s resignation Friday morning.
The announcement follows a BuzzFeed News report on Tuesday that revealed details about an alleged sexual battery incident involving Gutentag in 2015 when he worked for Uber. Though he was terminated from Uber at the time, Gutentag soon found another job in the tech industry and later became ZipRecruiter’s CMO, revealing how his alleged behavior had minimal consequences on his career. Gutentag was given an opportunity to comment on the allegations prior to the publication of BuzzFeed News' first story but declined to comment at the time through a spokesperson.
BuzzFeed News obtained a copy of ZipRecruiter CEO Ian Siegel’s email to employees on Friday. He said Gutentag “cares deeply about the Zip team. He made clear that his decision was with the best interest of the team in mind. He has hired, mentored, and advanced the careers of an extraordinary group and throughout this past week he’s been concerned about them (and the company) first and foremost.”
In a message Gutentag sent to the marketing team earlier this week, he wrote, “As I correct the obvious lies that have been spread about me, I want you to know how much this team, ZipRecruiter and our commitment to each other means to me.”
ZipRecruiter did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Gutentag also did not respond.
On Friday morning, an all-hands meeting was held at the company’s Santa Monica, California, headquarters, during which the CEO cautioned marketing employees against leaking details of the circumstances of Gutentag’s departure to the press, according to sources.
One evening during an Uber work trip to Las Vegas in 2015, while he was the Los Angeles general manager of Uber, Gutentag allegedly grabbed the hair of a female subordinate and groped her at a company party. The incident, which had been previously reported in the New York Times without Gutentag’s name, was described to BuzzFeed News by several people who witnessed it. Uber placed Gutentag on leave and terminated him within a week.
Four months later, he joined HopSkipDrive, a ride-hailing service for kids, as its chief operations officer, and in 2016, he became the chief marketing officer at ZipRecruiter, where he had been working since.
His ability to level up across multiple companies was, as one person who witnessed the harassment incident at Uber put it, “disheartening” — and was one of several examples of how men accused of and admitting to sexual harassment in the technology industry can quickly reemerge on the scene.
Siegel’s letter on Friday praised Gutentag for his “many lasting contributions” to ZipRecruiter, including leaving behind what Siegel characterized as a “world-class marketing org” and “a legacy of making ZipRecruiter the advertising leader in the podcasting world.”