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A former CEO of a dating app company, who was accused of bullying staff and reducing them to tears, was drafted in to judge an industry diversity and inclusion awards.
Rhonda Alexander, who was the boss of female-friendly dating app Fluttr, boasted about her judging credentials on social media despite claims against her including reducing colleagues to tears and “throwing eggs at ideas”.
A native New Yorker, Ms Alexander set out to create Fluttr, a dating app that sought to beat “Tinder Swindler” type dating app scams to create a “safe space” for women.
She describes herself as a “fierce female and diversity, equity, and inclusion champion” and a “fierce advocate for female leaders and entrepreneurs”.
However, an employment tribunal earlier this year ordered her the company which runs Fluttr to pay a former employee almost £100,000 after hearing testimony of “manipulative” behaviour perpetrated by the Cambridge graduate.
Pimfa, a trade association for investment managers, welcomed Ms Alexander to their panel to judge the awards given to individuals or organisations to celebrate “inspiring stories” of diversity and inclusion across the industry.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Ms Alexander has served on the judging panel since the awards were created in 2021, but since this year’s event earlier this month, the panel has since disbanded.
A Pimfa spokesperson told The Independent: “Our 2024 judging panel has disbanded and as far as we were aware Ms Alexander refuted and investigated all allegations.”
Laura Cameron Peck, who was the CEO of a sister start-up to Fluttr, told her bosses that Ms Alexander was “passive aggressive” and often wore down her employees’ confidence by “throwing eggs” at ideas.
Following her complaint, Ms Cameron Peck was forced out of the company after three months and was awarded £97,361 in compensation for the mistreatment.
Ms Cameron Peck was hired to lead digital company Wndr Social Ltd., a subsidiary of firm Ethical Social Group (ESG), in August 2021. Fluttr, run by Ms Alexander, was also a subsidiary under ESG, which was on “a mission to rebuild social platforms for good”.
However, Ms Cameron Peck told the tribunal she received a swathe of complaints from employees, some of whom were in tears, about Ms Alexander’s behaviour, which she flagged to the ESG’s founder and CEO Graham Pullan in a WhatsApp message.
The hearing was told: “She wrote about people contacting her in tears, talking about the bullying and rudeness they experienced and the way they had been treated, having eggs thrown at their efforts or suggestions and becoming silenced, deep professional experience being talked down by louder inexperienced and rude voices, confidence being eroded.”
It also heard how Ms Cameron Peck told her boss she had experienced much of Ms Alexander’s “passive, aggressive, and manipulative” behaviour herself.
“(Incidents) included calling out and trying to embarrass/humiliate colleagues in open settings, such as online meetings, and adopting inappropriate and purposefully aggressive facial expressions and gestures on team/group video calls when someone she chose to be in confrontation with spoke, making it uncomfortable for others and for her target,” the tribunal heard.
ESG ceased trading in 2022, and Ms Alexander now works at The Maven Group, a consultancy she founded in 2016 working to “strategically accelerate growth, diversity and inclusion, marketing, and funding plans” for start-ups, not for profits and SME’s.
Ms Alexander was contacted for comment.