Marc Lasry Steps Down From Board of Embattled Startup Ozy Media
Marc Lasry Steps Down From Board of Embattled Startup Ozy Media
(Bloomberg) -- Marc Lasry has resigned from the board of Ozy Media, the latest fallout after a report that the startup’s co-founder impersonated a YouTube executive on a conference call with potential investors.
Lasry, who is chief executive officer of the investment firm Avenue Capital Group and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, was named Ozy’s chairman earlier this month.
“I believe that going forward Ozy requires experience in areas like crisis management and investigations, where I do not have particular expertise,” Lasry said in a statement. “For that reason, I have stepped down from the company’s board. I remain an investor in the company and wish it the best going forward.”
Earlier this week, Ozy suspended its chief operating officer, Samir Rao, after a New York Times article revealed he impersonated a YouTube executive in February as Ozy was making a pitch for an investment from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
In response, Ozy has hired the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP to review its business activities. One early Ozy investor, SV Angel, led by venture capitalist Ron Conway, told the company it no longer wants the stock it acquired, according to Axios. And Katty Kay, a well-known journalist who left the BBC for Ozy, resigned this week, calling the allegations “deeply troubling.”
Ozy bills itself as a “modern media company,” creating podcasts, television shows and events. Rao was one of the founders, along with Carlos Watson, its CEO. Watson attributed the incident to a mental health crisis on Rao’s part, according to the paper, and said the company stood by him.
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