Igor Bonifacic
·Contributing Writer
Thu, November 4, 2021
Electric transport startup Rivian has been sued by one of its former employees. Per The Wall Street Journal, Laura Schwab, an executive who was a vice president of sales and marketing at the automaker until last month, filed a gender discrimination complaint with the California Superior Court in Orange County on Thursday. In the lawsuit, Schwab alleges she was fired by Rivian after she complained of a “toxic ‘bro culture’” that saw other executives exclude her from meetings and ignore her advice.
“The culture at Rivian was actually the worst I’ve experienced in over 20 years in the automotive industry,” Schwab told The Journal. A veteran of the automotive industry, Schwab held executive posts at Aston Martin Lagonda and Jaguar Land Rover before she joined Rivian in November 2020.
According to the outlet, Schwab tried to push the company to address numerous concerns while she was there. In one instance, she allegedly tried to tell the other executives on Rivian’s leadership team that the company had underpriced its vehicles. In yet another situation, she tried to raise concerns about the quality of the automaker’s manufacturing process. In the former case, the company allegedly initially dismissed her advice only to later follow through on it after a male executive raised the same issue.
The suit comes ahead of Rivian’s planned IPO next week where the company will seek to raise as much as $9.6 billion in additional investment. It also recently started producing R1T trucks for customers. More broadly, the suit comes as several other companies in the tech space face scrutiny over their gender equality practices. Most notably, there’s Activision Blizzard, which was sued by California’s fair employment regulator in July for fostering what it described as a sexist “frat boy” workplace culture. The fallout from that lawsuit has been far-reaching. Following months of pressure from employees, the company ended its policy of forced arbitration in cases involving sexual harassment and discrimination and put in place a zero-tolerance stance toward harassment.
Citing the quiet period ahead of its IPO, Rivian declined to comment on the complaint.
Rivian hit with gender discrimination lawsuit that alleges toxic 'bro culture'
Kirsten Korosec
Kirsten Korosec
TECHCRUNCH
Thu, November 4, 2021
Rivian, the electric automaker that recently filed for an IPO, has been sued by a former sales and marketing vice president for alleged gender discrimination.
The lawsuit alleges that Laura Schwab, a former sales and marketing executive who had a long employment history with Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin before joining Rivian in November 2020, was fired after reporting gender discrimination to the company's human resources department. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in California Superior Court in Orange County.
A Rivian spokeswoman told TechCrunch that due to a quiet period ahead of its public offering, the company can't offer comment.
Schwab also filed a statement of claim with the American Arbitration Association and laid out her allegations in a blog post published on Medium. The AAA statement, viewed by TechCrunch, describes a "toxic bro culture" at the company's highest levels. The lawsuit alleges that Schwab was regularly ignored by her superior when trying to point out problems. She was regularly excluded from meetings attended by her male peers and decisions regarding her team were made without her input, the statement says. The AAA statement also says that her concerns regarding "Rivian's misleading public statements and flawed business practices," were dismissed.
When she spoke up to human resources about "the boys' club culture and gender discrimination she was experiencing from a C-level executive, Rivian abruptly fired her," the statement reads.
In one excerpt on the blog, Schwab wrote:
Rivian publicly boasts about its culture, so it was a crushing blow when I joined the company and almost immediately experienced a toxic bro culture that marginalizes women and contributes to the company making mistakes. I raised concerns to HR about the gender discrimination from my manager, the "boys club" culture, and the impact it was having on me, my team, and the company. Two days later, my boss fired me.
The complaint comes as Amazon-backed Rivian prepares to become a publicly traded company in one of the most anticipated debuts of the year. A recent regulatory filing showed Rivian hoped to raise up $8.4 billion in its initial public offering. The company plans to offer 135 million shares at a price between $57 and $62. Underwriters also have an option to buy up to 20.25 million additional shares. If underwriters exercise that option, Rivian would raise as much as $9.6 billion.
Based on the number of outstanding shares, that would put its market valuation at about $53 billion. If employee stock options and other restricted shares are considered, Rivian's valuation could be as high as $60 billion. Rivian filed October 1 to become a publicly traded company in the United States.
Thu, November 4, 2021
Rivian, the electric automaker that recently filed for an IPO, has been sued by a former sales and marketing vice president for alleged gender discrimination.
The lawsuit alleges that Laura Schwab, a former sales and marketing executive who had a long employment history with Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin before joining Rivian in November 2020, was fired after reporting gender discrimination to the company's human resources department. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in California Superior Court in Orange County.
A Rivian spokeswoman told TechCrunch that due to a quiet period ahead of its public offering, the company can't offer comment.
Schwab also filed a statement of claim with the American Arbitration Association and laid out her allegations in a blog post published on Medium. The AAA statement, viewed by TechCrunch, describes a "toxic bro culture" at the company's highest levels. The lawsuit alleges that Schwab was regularly ignored by her superior when trying to point out problems. She was regularly excluded from meetings attended by her male peers and decisions regarding her team were made without her input, the statement says. The AAA statement also says that her concerns regarding "Rivian's misleading public statements and flawed business practices," were dismissed.
When she spoke up to human resources about "the boys' club culture and gender discrimination she was experiencing from a C-level executive, Rivian abruptly fired her," the statement reads.
In one excerpt on the blog, Schwab wrote:
Rivian publicly boasts about its culture, so it was a crushing blow when I joined the company and almost immediately experienced a toxic bro culture that marginalizes women and contributes to the company making mistakes. I raised concerns to HR about the gender discrimination from my manager, the "boys club" culture, and the impact it was having on me, my team, and the company. Two days later, my boss fired me.
The complaint comes as Amazon-backed Rivian prepares to become a publicly traded company in one of the most anticipated debuts of the year. A recent regulatory filing showed Rivian hoped to raise up $8.4 billion in its initial public offering. The company plans to offer 135 million shares at a price between $57 and $62. Underwriters also have an option to buy up to 20.25 million additional shares. If underwriters exercise that option, Rivian would raise as much as $9.6 billion.
Based on the number of outstanding shares, that would put its market valuation at about $53 billion. If employee stock options and other restricted shares are considered, Rivian's valuation could be as high as $60 billion. Rivian filed October 1 to become a publicly traded company in the United States.
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