Former CBI boss insists organisation did not have a ‘toxic culture’
Former CBI chief Dame Carolyn Fairbairn has insisted the organisation did not have a toxic culture as she broke her silence on the sexual misconduct scandal that has engulfed the body in recent months.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has come under fire from allegations of sexual harassment and rape made by staff members, first published by the Guardian newspaper.
Now former director-general Dame Caroline, 62, who ran the CBI from 2015 to 2020, has spoken out about her time leading the organisation in an interview with The Sunday Times.
“This has been an incredibly difficult and distressing time,” she told the paper.
“I feel a profound sense of shock and distress the serious allegation of rape was made on my watch,” she said. The rape allegation is under investigation by Canada Police.
Fairbairn suggested, however, the board may not have defended the CBI as strongly as it could have done, and that no allegations of operational mistakes had been put to her.
“I maintain and believe that it was a really good culture, and that it was very far from being a toxic culture,” she said.
“That link the board made in its analysis, which drew a direct link from a toxic culture to assaults on women, is fundamentally unfounded and has let down the organisation,” she said.
“This is about men behaving badly towards women. I do not accept this connection between the culture of the organisation that I created and the actions of an individual who committed a [potential] crime [of alleged rape],” she added.
“One of the issues I also have with this line of reasoning is that it seems to somehow justify the behaviour potentially of a man who committed a [possible] crime,” she said.
Her comments come as the new director-general Rain Newton-Smith embarks on a mission to save the CBI ahead of an emergency meeting early next month.
A pitch for new members by the British Chambers of Commerce’s chief executive Shevaun Haviland last week was seen by many as an attempt to try and take the CBI’s position as Britain’s top business lobby.