Brief: Amazon suspends top exec after sexual harassment charge by Hollywood producer

Photo credit: Roy Price’s Twitter.

The news (extracted from The New York Times):

• Amazon has suspended the head of its fast-growing movie and TV show business, Roy Price, after the producer of one of its most popular serialized prime video shows The Man in the High Castle accused him of unwanted sexual advances.
• Hollywood producer Isa Hackett, daughter of novelist Philip K. Dick whose work inspired the show, detailed her “shocking and surreal” experience in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter yesterday. “You will love my dick,” Price is alleged to have lewdly propositioned her in a taxi after a Comic Con dinner in San Diego two years ago. Earlier at the party, he allegedly accosted her and whispered “anal sex.”
• Hackett confirmed the details in an interview with The New York Times and said “I just wanted to get that out.”

Why it matters:

• Tech companies have been forced to deal with a toxic culture of sexual misconduct in a male-dominated ecosystem. An exposure by Susan Fowler in a blog post ultimately led to the ouster of Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick as CEO.
• 500 Startups founding partner Dave McClure was another high profile executive who had to resign as general partner of the VC firm following a series of sexual harassment charges, including a blog by Malaysian entrepreneur Cheryl Yeoh.