A woman has accused CEO Bob Bakish of touching her inappropriately at a 2016 holiday party.
The unidentified woman no longer works for the company’s Nickelodeon division but came forward earlier this year, claiming Bakish touched her rear end at the party.
According to Variety, as a result of the allegation, ViacomCBS launched an investigation, but now, the review has concluded. “The Board takes any allegation of this type seriously,” a ViacomCBS spokesperson said in a statement. “An independent review of the alleged incident has concluded, and the investigation did not support the allegation.”
At the time of the alleged incident, Bakish was the interim CEO of Viacom when the company was merging with CBS, whose former CEO Leslie Moonves was terminated in 2018 for sexual misconduct and creating a “culture of fear” through intimidation. Bakish became the permanent CEO this month.
ViacomCBS sets itself apart from many other corporate giants with their majority-female board, as seven of its directors are women. The board includes Shari Redstone, who has urged the importance of having strong governance and a healthy corporate culture.
Redstone has also been supportive of Bakish –who has been with the company since 1997. He took over for Viacom’s former CEO, Philippe Dauman, in 2016, after he was pushed out in a power struggle.
