Greylock COO Frangione Leaves VC Firm After `Lapse of Judgment'

(Bloomberg) -- Greylock Partners Chief Operating Officer Tom Frangione has resigned following what the venture firm described as a “significant lapse of judgment.”

Within three days of learning about Frangione's behavior, Greylock said it investigated the incident, determined his behavior was “inconsistent” with the firm's values, asked for Frangione's resignation and dispatched him from the firm.

Frangione, who had been COO since August 2010, still lists his position at Greylock as current on his LinkedIn profile, but is no longer listed on the firm's website. He didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Frangione's departure was reported earlier by the Information technology website.

In recent weeks, multiple women, including founders seeking capital for their startups, have accused male investors of sexual harassment and assault, leading to intense scrutiny of the male-dominated venture industry and its treatment of women. The public focus is an abrupt shift from the whisper network about episodes of harassment that once was the norm in an industry where less than 10 percent of investors are female.

The accounts, which have spurred some apologies for poor behavior, have led to the resignations of investors including Justin Caldbeck, Dave McClure and Frank Artale.

Greylock was one of the first firms to publicly react to the incidents, with partner and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman calling for venture capitalists to sign a “Decency Pledge.”

Frangione's incident involved another individual at Greylock, according to the firm. Following the investigation, Greylock said it added a human resources executive, instituted training and formalized its code of conduct policy.

Greylock currently lists investments in more than 80 companies, including home-sharing company Airbnb Inc., cloud storage provider Dropbox Inc. and GoFundMe, a fundraising website.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lizette Chapman in San Francisco at lchapman19@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack