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- Time's Up will be shutting down operations to rebuild the entire organization in the coming months.
- Time's UP CEO Tina Tchen and cofounder Roberta Kaplan resigned amid former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's sexual harassment controversy.
- Time's Up was founded by Hollywood figures in response to the #MeToo movement.
Time's Up, the women's advocacy group set up during the #MeToo movement, is undergoing an overhaul.
The group will be doing a "reset," which includes hiring a new team and leadership, with the goal of creating a more "focused, transparent, and inclusive" environment, it announced Friday.
"This is a needed reset, not a retreat," board Chair Gabrielle Sulzberger said in a statement. "In our current state, and with our current structure, we just will not be able to have the impact so many women and our staff expect from us."
The overhaul comes several months after the group received backlash for its ties to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in August after a report by the New York attorney general found that he sexually harassed 11 women during his 10 years in office.
Tina Tchen, the group's president and CEO, told colleagues in a December 2020 text message to "stand down" and not issue a statement in support of one of Cuomo's accusers after she went public, the Washington Post reported. Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer and chairwoman of Time's UP, and a member of Cuomo's legal advisory team, also resigned.
Time's Up was founded by Hollywood figures in response to the #MeToo movement, which saw women across the world share stories of sexist discrimination and sexual harassment after rape allegations emerged about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in 2018.
The group's current operations and programs will end on January 1, 2022, with the majority of staff receiving severance pay through March. The "reset" plan was announced to staff privately on Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the organization will be reduced to four remaining board members and a three-person transition team, a Time's Up spokesperson told Insider, to develop "phase two" plans for the organization as it moves forward.
A copy of the review was made public to provide complete transparency, the organization said.
The organization's interim CEO and President, Monifa Bandele, announced she would be stepping down at the end of 2021 to allow for the overhaul.
"Over the years, TIME'S UP has made mistakes," Bandele said in a USA Today op-ed. "We will continue to make mistakes – and own them, as well as learn from them to grow stronger. We will stand in stark, splendid contrast to those who attempt to deny, deflect, and distract from their record."
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