Eva Longoria, Jurnee Smollett and Shonda Rimes have stepped down from the Time’s Up board.
The two actresses and the ‘How To Get Away with Murder’ creator have agreed to leave their positions on the organisation’s board of directors as part of a huge leadership shake-up after the campaign group became embroiled in the sexual harassment scandal surrounding former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The organisation announced over the weekend that “members of the existing board will be stepping aside over the next 30 days” to make way for a “new and reconstituted board”, with Nina Shaw, Hilary Rosen, Katie McGrath, Christy Haubegger, and Ana Navarro also among those who offered their resignation.
They said in a statement: “TIME’S UP is ready for new leadership, and we want to move forcefully toward its new iteration.
We have strong faith in the talent and dedication of our interim CEO Monifa Bandele as a leader. As has been announced, Monifa will be overseeing a comprehensive assessment of the organization, in collaboration with an outside consultant, and the input of our stakeholders: survivors and those who work for survivor justice and gender equity in the workplace and beyond.”
The new temporary CEO have asked Ashley Judd, Gabrielle Sulzberger, Colleen DeCourcy, and Raffi Freedman-Gurspan to stay on.
The reshuffle comes after Roberta Kaplan was pressured to step down as board chair last month after a report from the New York Attorney General revealed she advised Cuomo on a letter designed to discredit one of his accusers.
In addition, Tina Tchen resigned as President and Chief Executive late last month.
Almost 150 people signed an open letter last month calling for an independent investigation into Time’s Up and the National Women’s Law Center, as well as seeking the removal of board members who “have supported perpetrators of harm.”
Aliston Turkos, who wrote the letter, wrote: “TIME’S UP has abandoned the very people it was supposed to champion. The board continues to fail to heed the outcry from survivors. TIME’S UP is failing all survivors.”
