Apple has confirmed that its vice president of procurement Tony Blevins is leaving the company after 22-years. His untimely departure is a result of a sexist comment he made in a TikTok video which went viral.
Bloomberg reports that for his series to know the occupation of owners of expensive cars, TikTok and Instagram creator Daniel Mac asked Tony Blevins what he did. Standing next to his luxury Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, Blevins replied “I have rich cars, play golf and fondle big-breasted women, but I take weekends and major holidays off.” He also added that he had a “hell of a dental plan.”
With over 1.3 million views on TikTok and 40,000 likes on Instagram, the video angered Apple’s operations and procurement teams who reported it the human resource department and an investigation was launched.
Since the organization of #AppleToo movement, Tony Blevins is the first top executive held accountable
Upon conclusion of the investigation, Blevin was removed from command and later his departure was confirmed. It is reported that Blevins reported to either Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook or Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and it was William’s decision for the company and Blevin to part ways. He has apologized for his crude remarks.
“I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my mistaken attempt at humor.”
In August 2021, several female employees at the company organized the #AppleToo movement and shared their experiences of misogyny, sexual harassment, and discrimination in the company, especially at the hands of retail and corporate managers. The victims also accused the company’s HR of being indifferent towards such complaints and of mistreating the complainants.
Although the company publically said that it took such complaints seriously and launch an investigation, no action was taken against the accused.
Now, Blevins’ is the first senior executive held accountable since the organization of #AppleToo movement. Previosuly, the company fired Antonio García, former Facebook manager, right after he was hired because of his past misogynistic remarks.
Called the company’s “chief cost cutter” in a 2020 feature story by The Wall Street, “the Blevinator” was known for skills to drive down costs.
He recently worked on the company’s satellite agreement with Globalstar Inc., led negotiations over cellular modems with Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp.
As part of a roughly 100-person group of vice presidents at Apple and one of only about 30 executives that report to either Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook or Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams.
It is said that his departure is going to leave a big void for the tech giant.
