Alphabet exec Richard DeVaul is reportedly out after sexual harassment story

October 31, 2018

Alphabet exec Richard DeVaul is reportedly out after sexual harassment story

As Axios first reported, Richard DeVaul, a director at the entity formerly known as Google X, has left the company. An incident involving DeVaul behaving inappropriately toward a Google interviewee was cited in a New York Times report centered on the sexual misconduct of Andy Rubin last week. Google confirmed that DeVaul had resigned and will not receive an exit package.

The story recounts a 2013 incident during which DeVaul brought up his own polyamory in an interview with Star Simpson, a female hardware engineer. DeVaul reportedly invited Simpson to Burning Man. When she attended, DeVaul asked her to remove her shirt so that he could give her a massage. Simpson was not hired at Google.

Google has faced wide criticism of its decision to give Rubin a $90 million exit package in spite of an investigation finding the claims against him credible. Axios reports that DeVaul did not receive an exit package, consistent with Sundar Pichai’s recent claim that the company had fired 48 individuals for sexual harassment in the last two years without providing exit packages.

Earlier in 2018, DeVaul authored a Medium post introspecting on his experience awakening to his own latent racism and misogyny.

“We can be better people and make a more just society when we recognize this and are committed to the long-term solutions of continued personal introspection, thoughtful critique of systematic bias, and working to create new and better systems,” DeVaul wrote. “I’m committed to working on this, and I hope you will join me.”