OpenWeb CEO dispute ends with Shoval stepping down and accepting advisory role
After a legal battle with the board and investors, Nadav Shoval agrees to step down as CEO of OpenWeb, taking on a senior advisory position instead.
Nadav Shoval, the ousted CEO of OpenWeb, and its shareholders have reached a compromise following a contentious legal battle. According to a brief letter sent to the company's employees over the weekend, current CEO Tim Harvey informed them that the disputes between Shoval and the company have been resolved.
As part of the agreement, Shoval will step down from his role as CEO but will serve as a "senior advisor" to Harvey. This advisory role, particularly following the intense legal battle that preceded it, can be seen as a form of "word-washing," designed mainly to allow Shoval to step down gracefully after his refusal to accept the board's decision to remove him from the management of the company he founded. OpenWeb has not provided any details regarding Shoval's salary in his new position or the scope of his responsibilities.
In early September, the company, which develops systems to enhance social media presence, held an emergency board meeting where it was decided to remove Shoval, the company's founder and CEO since its inception. Tensions erupted between him and the company over the legality of his ouster, and parts of the dispute were leaked to social media before being fully revealed in a lawsuit Shoval filed against the company in the Tel Aviv District Court. In over 200 pages with appendices, the relationship between Shoval—who founded OpenWeb in 2012 and was considered one of Israel's high-tech prodigies—and the veteran venture capitalists, led by Jeff Horing of Insight Partners, was laid bare. Insight, which manages tens of billions of dollars, is a central player in Israel's unicorn industry and was the first to create private high-tech companies valued at over a billion dollars. Today, it is invested in most of these companies, and, as in the case of OpenWeb, Horing serves as a dominant board member.
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“Nadav Shoval's lawsuit is nothing but a baseless attempt to artificially create ‘drama’ where none exists. This is a common situation in many commercial companies, where the board of directors loses trust in the CEO and decides to terminate his position,” OpenWeb wrote in its response to Shoval’s lawsuit.
The conflict is now drawing to a close, with lawyers on both sides being the primary beneficiaries.
