Tina Tchen Resigns As Time’s Up CEO Amid Firestorm Over Cuomo Ties

Tina Tchen, the CEO of Time’s Up, announced Thursday that she is resigning from her position at the anti-harassment and women’s advocacy organization. The move comes amid a torrent of criticism over Time’s Up handling of the sexual harassment allegations against former New York governor Andrew Cuomo—specifically, criticism that the group was more aligned with the alleged harasser than the women with credible accusations against him.

Earlier on Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Tchen had instructed her colleagues to “stand down” from a plan to issue a statement in support of Lindsay Boylan, the first woman to come forward with sexual harassment accusations against the governor. This reporting followed earlier revelations—found in New York attorney general Letita James’ bombshell 165-page report on Cuomo and his behavior—that Cuomo had sought, and received, Time’s Up and Tchen’s counsel in the wake of those first allegations.

“I have spent a career fighting for positive change for women and I’ve never stopped,” Tchen said in a statement early Thursday evening. “Now is the time for Time’s Up to evolve and move forward as there is so much more work to do for women. It is clear that I am not the leader who can accomplish that in this moment. I am especially aware that my position at the helm of Time’sUp has become a painful and divisive focal point, where those very women and other activists who should be working together to fight for change are instead battling each other in harmful ways.”

In a statement of its own, the Time’s Up board of directors thanked Tchen for her service and said that as of August 31, Monifa Bandele will become the organization’s interim CEO. Bandele is Time’s Up chief operating officer; she also serves on the steering committee for Communities United for Police Reform.

The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Tchen began her career as a lawyer focusing on workplace issues; she advised companies on gender inequity, diversity, and sexual harassment. She eventually became the chief of staff for former First Lady Michelle Obama, and helped organize the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. In 2017, Tchen cofounded the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund to help provide survivors of sexual harassment and assault support with any legal and public relations needs.

It’s this history, this focus, that has so many people feeling betrayed by the apparent ties between Tchen, Time’s Up, and Cuomo.

“Time’s Up has prioritized proximity to power over mission,” a group of sexual harassment survivors and victims wrote in an open letter posted to Medium on August 9. “Time’s Up has abandoned the very people it was supposed to champion.”

Tchen has apologized to these survivors and the broader Time’s Up community, first on August 11 and again in statements given to the press this week. But she also tried to explain—or justify—her thinking.

“In 2019, Time’s Up worked with the New York Governor’s office to ensure the passage of the New York Safety Agenda, legislation that has enacted major improvements in the state laws on sexual harassment, sexual assault, and sexual abuse. When our then-Board Chair Robbie Kaplan contacted me about actions in Cuomo’s office, I responded believing that, as they had been in the past, his office was interested in doing the right thing for women,” Tchen said earlier this month.

Tchen’s resignation from Time’s Up is not likely to end the firestorm surrounding the organization and its work. The revelations that have unfolded over the course of August have far-reaching effects, the most immediate of which is a portrait of an organization that has lost its way. The open letter from survivors outlined eight action steps that Time’s Up and the legal defense fund could do to better support the people it says it wants to help. What remains to be seen is how much of this advice, if any, is taken.