The CEO of Heidrick & Struggles has denied a claim by Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson that the executive-search firm is at fault for a bio with incorrect information about Thompson's college degree, reports Kara Swisher at AllThingsD.
Already, most Yahoos we've heard from say they don't believe Thompson's story about how his bio came to have false information. Turns out a lot of smart people work at Yahoo!
Thompson's explanation: When Heidrick & Struggles helped get him a job as CTO of eBay's PayPal division, a junior staffer interviewed him and wrote a summary that claimed Thompson had a degree in computer science. (He doesn't.)
Not true, said Heidrick & Struggles CEO Kevin Kelly in an email to his staff that Swisher obtained.
And he's ratted Thompson out to Yahoo, which is investigating Thompson over the matter.
"... if recent media reports are accurate, the CEO of Yahoo! has made potentially damaging allegations about our firm that are simply not true and cannot be allowed to stand in the public record. The media articles in question have indicated that the Yahoo! CEO told members of his senior staff that, many years ago, a junior member of our firm invented an academic credential for him in the course of preparing standard profile materials. Based on information in our possession, this allegation is verifiably not true and we have notified Yahoo! to that effect." [Emphasis added.]
eBay CEO John Donahoe, Thompson's former boss, appears to be pinning the blame on eBay's PR department, suggesting that they missed the error in Thompson's résumé while their colleagues in eBay legal caught it—yet didn't bother to tell anyone.
That explanation makes about as much sense as the "junior staffer" excuse.
