Electric truck startup Rivian has been sued by a former vice president for gender discrimination and retaliation just days before the automaker s upcoming IPO, which is expected to value it at $53 billion.
Laura Schwab said that she was subjected to a Toxic Bro culture since becoming a vice president of sales and marketing in November, after five years as president of Aston Martin s North American operations.
Schwab was often excluded from meetings with her manager, Chief Growth Officer Jiten Behl, who appeared more responsive to information from her male counterparts.
While my male colleagues sat in the meeting room without me, I could not even schedule one on one meetings with my boss, Chief Growth Officer. She said he would only communicate with me by instant messenger and that would be outside office hours, late in the evening.
Schwab asked another senior female executive to help get her into the meetings, but was told that she had been shut out from them. In October, Schwab reported the issue up to her human resources business partner, who allegedly said Behl had not been talking to her.
Two days later, Schwab was called into a meeting with Behl and the HR business partner and was told that she was being fired as part of a larger reorganization. Schwab maintains that she was the only person let go, and that the dismissal costs her millions in unvested equity.
Amazon-backed Rivian told FOX Business: Because of our mandated quiet period, we can t comment on this. According to the Wall Street Journal, Schwabs s legal representation, Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff Lowe LLP, settled a similar suit against Pinterest for $22.5 million.