More details surrounding the unexpected dismissal of a beloved Reddit employee have emerged from a post penned by Yishan Wong, Reddit’s former CEO.
Late Sunday, Wong wrote that the decision to dismiss Victoria Taylor, the woman in charge of Reddit’s AMA sessions that often included celebrity guests, came from co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Reddit’s users initially assumed that then-interim CEO Ellen Pao had made the decision and vocally protested Taylor’s departure.
Pao stepped down on Friday, saying she didn’t feel she could deliver the growth that Reddit’s board wants to see. Co-founder Steve Huffman has taken over as CEO.
Although Ohanian had previously mentioned his involvement in Taylor’s dismissal, he didn’t outright take responsibility for the decision. But according to Wong, because Ohanian was chairman of Reddit’s board of directors, he had more authority than Pao and fired Taylor. Former Reddit employe Dan McComas disputed this last claim in a comment to Wong’s post.