Rosette Pambakian
Rosette Pambakian
Rosette Pambakian is the former Vice President and Head of Brand Marketing and Communications and Branding at Tinder. She lives in Los Angeles. [undefined]
Early Life & Education
Rosette Pambakian graduated from Louisville High School in 2001. She earned her Bachelor's degrees in Public Relations and Journalism from California State University, Northridge. [undefined]
Career
Tinder
In March 2014, Rosette Pambakian joined Tinder as their Head of Communications and Branding. [undefined] While there, she led marketing campaigns that helped global the platform, including "The World’s Most Eligible Bachelor" which was awarded three Bronze Lions. She was also a part of publishing the story of a Tinder couple that chatted for three years before meeting on Good Morning America for the first time. [666666] [undefined]
In 2018, Pambakian spearheaded the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts.
She created a petition and a campaign for Unicode to create interracial couple emojis to help represent Tinder's global user base; the campaign was based on the hashtag #RepresentLove. [undefined]
Tinder Controversy (Sexual Assault)
On December 18, 2018, it was reported that Pambakian was dismissed from her position at Tinder after she accused Tinder's CEO Greg Blatt sexually assaulted her.
After being fired, The Verge published an email exchange between her and Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg. [undefined]
Dear Mandy, *Six years ago I wrote the very first press release for Tinder.
Since then, I've poured my heart and soul into this company and helped grow it into a global phenomenon and top-grossing app.
I was the youngest and longest-standing female executive at the company.
I love Tinder.
And I love my colleagues.
But you have now fired me from a company I was so proud to build in blatant retaliation for joining a group of colleagues and Tinder's original founding members in a lawsuit against Match and IAC, standing up for our rights, calling out the company's CEO Greg for sexual misconduct, and confronting the company about covering up what happened to me.* *While I truly hoped that decency and professionalism would prevail and that you would let me return to work, I knew that was probably unlikely when I was placed on leave the very day the lawsuit was filed and you continued to defend the actions of the executive that I spoke out against.
Rather than acknowledge the truth and condemn his actions, you chalked it up it to 'bad judgment.' To make matters worse, you told the world that a sham investigation (in which I was never even interviewed) determined the assault was some sort of 'consensual cuddling'-as if there could by anything consensual about a CEO groping his subordinate in front of other employees after making sexually explicit comments throughout the evening of a company holiday party.
No company that has faced allegations like this has gone to such lengths to protect one of its own - it's truly despicable.* *Since being placed on leave, I've been subjected to ongoing intimidation and retaliation clearly designed to pressure me into resigning-from immediately removing my name from my office and converting it into a conference room, to trying to coerce me into turning over my private and personal data on my phone.
Though I can think of no other company that has actually fired the woman who made sexual assault allegations against an executive-the company's actions here, including firing me just one day before my remaining options vest, are totally consistent with the way you have circled the wagons around him from day one.* Was the board aware that the company would publicly blame the victim? *When I refused to sign a non-disparagement agreement presented to me by HR, which would have prevented me from speaking publicly about my experience in exchange for compensation, Match snuck an arbitration clause into its employees' most recent compliance acknowledgements, causing me, Jonathan, James and Josh to have to withdraw from the lawsuit.
Know that my former Tinder colleagues and I still vigorously support that lawsuit - IAC and Match cheated us out of what we were promised and rightfully earned in exchange for building Tinder into Barry Diller's most valuable business.
As the lawsuit progresses the evidence will emerge and the world will see how IAC and Match plotted against their employees and rewarded misconduct.* *I never imagined that I'd be pushed out of my company for standing up for what is right.
But if that is the cost of being on the right side of history, I'll pay it.
As a woman CEO, I truly hope that you reconsider the safety of your remaining female workforce and allow Tinder and other Match owned companies to follow in the footsteps of Uber, Facebook and Google in eliminating forced arbitration for sexual misconduct claims.
We deserve better.* Rosette
Mandy's response is as follows:
Dear Rosette, I'm glad you reached out to me directly and I would like to take this opportunity to clarify a few points, because there seems to be a very real disconnect here that I truly want to fix. *You were not terminated because you reported Greg for sexual harassment.
You couldn't have been, as you never reported Greg for sexual harassment.
When Sean Rad brought the subject up nearly five months later, right after the valuation process commenced, it was immediately and thoroughly investigated by the Board, independently without any involvement from Greg, which concluded that no sexual harassment occurred.
I was not the CEO at the time, but I know that you were interviewed on at least two separate occasions and you never alleged sexual harassment.* *On the topic of sexual harassment at Tinder, you know how seriously reports are taken.
You yourself reported two other male colleagues, whom Sean Rad hired, and they were very quickly dismissed.
Clearly, it was taken very seriously given the company terminated those individuals.
More importantly though, Greg is no longer here.
I am.
And I promise you, we do not retaliate against anyone who reports sexual harassment.
Your position was never at risk due to any sexual harassment complaints.
I wanted to find a way to keep you employed at Tinder.* *As explained in the letter we sent you, you were terminated because it was not possible for you to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of your role as Tinder's spokesperson for a number of reasons, including your public position against the company over a valuation process.
We also recently asked you to come to the office for a meeting with the HR department to discuss work-related activities and policies and were told that we can only contact you through your attorneys.
Unfortunately, it's impossible for you to do your work at Tinder if all communications related to your job have to go through your lawyers.
As it relates to your personal information, any suggestion that we have been trying to access it is just not true.
Like any company, we've asked for you, and all other employees involved, to return company laptops, phones and other devices to us.
And unfortunately, we couldn't retrieve a number of company devices from you and the others since you claimed that they were coincidentally all lost or damaged just before you decided to sue the company.* *There are two last points I want to make: on the point about your equity, those options have already been accelerated, and should be exercisable in your account, along with the other equity awards that have vested since August.
However, on the arbitration agreements, there is no NDA in them and we never tried to force you to sign a non-disparagement agreement.
You're free to talk about anything publicly that you'd like.
You have already done so and that's your prerogative.
But the arbitration agreement is attached again.
As you already know from when you signed it, it's clearly labeled 'Agreement to Arbitrate.'* *I am a strong female advocate and have said to the women in the organization that as a female CEO in charge, I have zero tolerance for bad behavior and I am very much invested in every single employee's success.
If you'd like to discuss any of the above, or have a productive dialogue, I am here and will make myself available for an in person meeting.
Just let me know.* Mandy
Rosette Pambakian’s attorneys filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on August 5, 2019 that claimed that Pambakian was fired as marketing vice president in 2018 after complaining about an incident she said happened in December 2016. In the complaint, Pambakian alleges that ex-CEO Gregory Blatt had a "reputation for being a notorious bully." She described his behavior throughout their years working together as being "inappropriate." She says Blatt groped her and kissed her without consent in a hotel room after a company party held on December 9, 2016. Rosette claims in the lawsuit that Blatt came up to the hotel room where she and two other colleagues were around 2 o’clock in the morning. Pambakian's lawyers accused Match's owner, IAC, which is controlled by the media mogul Barry Diller, of conducting a sham investigation that concluded the behavior was "consensual."[8][9]
The legal action is separate from a $2 billion lawsuit Pambakian co-filed in 2018.
Along with nine other current and former Tinder staff members, she claimed that IAC purposely undervalued Tinder to reduce the amount it had to pay out in early employee options.
It was in this lawsuit that her sexual assault claims against Blatt first surfaced.[9]
Awards & Accomplishments
Pambakian was named one of PRWeek's 2018 40 Under 40. [undefined] She was also on Cosmopolitan's 2018 Millennial Power List. [undefined]