Two months after the start of a sexual misconduct investigation into the high-ranking music executive Charlie Walk, the president of the Republic Group, the label and Mr. Walk “have mutually agreed to part ways,” the company said Wednesday night in a brief statement.
Universal Music Group, which oversees the label, declined to comment further on the outcome of the review, which was conducted by an outside law firm. Mr. Walk, who worked with artists including Lorde, the Weeknd and Ariana Grande, and who also appeared as a judge on Fox’s singing competition show “The Four,” did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Accused in January of persistent harassment and inappropriate touching by at least six women who had worked with him, Mr. Walk denied the charges at the time. “I did not do these things and this is not who I am,” he told Rolling Stone last month. “I support the national discussion taking place right now because I believe fully in the importance in treating everyone with respect and dignity at all times.” He retained the lawyer Patricia Glaser, who is also representing Harvey Weinstein, to address the claims.
Mr. Walk had been known as one of music’s most effective promotion executives. He represents perhaps the highest-profile employee in the industry to lose his job amid the #MeToo movement, which has been met by large swaths of silence on the part of both artists and music’s rank-and-file.
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The accusations against Mr. Walk first surfaced on a women’s wellness blog in the form of an open letter. Tristan Coopersmith, who worked under Mr. Walk at Columbia Records, a division of Sony, around 2004, wrote that Mr. Walk had frequently made inappropriate remarks to her and attempted to initiate sexual contact, including pushing her onto a bed in his home.
“For a year I shuddered at the idea of being called into your office, where you would stealthily close the door and make lewd comments about my body and share your fantasies of having sex with me,” Ms. Coopersmith wrote. She said she had been paid a settlement and left the entertainment industry.
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Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/arts/music/charlie-walk-sexual-harassment-republic-records.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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