Activision exec Fran Townsend, criticized for lawsuit response, leaves company

Activision Blizzard’s executive vice president for corporate affairs, Fran Townsend, is leaving her executive role at the company, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick announced Thursday in an email to staff. The news was first announced Friday by the Wall Street Journal.

Townsend, who is a former homeland security advisor under President George W. Bush, is not moving far away from Activision Blizzard; she’ll now act as “senior counsel” to Kotick and Activision Blizzard’s board of directors, according to an email from Kotick obtained by Kotaku. Two other executives, Jen Brewer and Luci Altman, will also move into new roles — chief ethics and compliance officer and corporate secretary, respectively.

Activision Blizzard has not responded to Polygon’s request for comment.

Townsend’s departure comes more than a year after the executive was criticized for downplaying abuses reported in Activision Blizzard’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) lawsuit, which alleged rampant sexism and gender-based discrimination at the company. J. Allen Brack was named as one of the top Blizzard executives for failing to take corrective actions. Before filing suit, the DFEH stated that it had conducted an investigation of Activision Blizzard for two years.

Workers were also critical of Townsend retweeting The Atlantic’s “The Problem With the Whistle-Blower System,” just as many employees at the company were speaking out their struggles at the company and with its culture. Townsend deleted her Twitter account later.

After the lawsuit was made public, Activision Blizzard released an official statement in which it said the lawsuit included “distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past.” Townsend herself called the lawsuit “truly meritless and irresponsible” in a statement that’s since been widely criticized by current and former staff. Thousands of Activision Blizzard employees signed a letter asking that Townsend step down as the executive sponsor of the women’s network. Activision Blizzard employees across California marched out of the workplace in protest against Townsend’s leadership response.

Since the original DFEH lawsuit was filed, more than one year has passed. There were several more lawsuits filed after the initial DFEH suit was filed, one of which came from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which was paid $18 million in settlement last year. Also, a suit for wrongful death that was later dropped was filed.

Amid Activision Blizzard’s corporate restructuring, the company is looking to government regulators to approve Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal to acquire the Call of Duty and Overwatch publisher.