The Nonlinear Library EA - EV investigation into Owen and Community Health by EV US Board
Jan 29, 2024
09:48
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: EV investigation into Owen and Community Health, published by EV US Board on January 29, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
Introduction
Last year, Owen Cotton-Barratt
resigned from EV UK's board of directors following reports of sexual misconduct. Prior to his resignation, accusations of misconduct from Owen
had been reported to Julia Wise at CEA's Community Health team, which is led by Nicole Ross.
EV US and EV UK jointly commissioned an independent investigation led by the law firm
Herbert Smith Freehills into Owen's conduct and whether the Community Health team had acted appropriately with the information they had been given. Following the investigation, the boards of EV US[1] and EV UK jointly deliberated over the findings and the appropriate response.
Below, the EV boards report their determinations and actions. We considered saying nothing or sharing significantly less information but decided it was in the best interests of the community to have some information upon which to update on the behavior of Owen Cotton-Barratt and the Community Health team. Our desire for transparency was not particularly motivated by the magnitude of the findings, and was instead motivated by the relevancy of the information for informing community members' future interactions with Owen and / or Community Health, the public nature of Owen's resignation, and community norms towards transparency and accountability.
Additionally, we felt that sharing as much information as we could was particularly important because of
the recent news that EV's projects are spinning out, as the boards' decisions only have an effect for projects so long as they remain part of EV. Projects will eventually set their own policies and won't have access to all of the facts we do, so we wanted to provide some information to enable the broader EA ecosystem to make better-informed decisions.
With that being said, we are constrained in how much detail we can share without risking the anonymity of the interviewees. The investigators noted that multiple interviewees made requests to protect their anonymity, and given their voluntary participation, we want to respect their wishes. We want people to continue to feel comfortable coming forward in investigations knowing that potentially identifying information will not be made public.
This means that in some cases below we present claims and board actions without all of the underlying evidence or reasoning. We recognize that this post does not have the same level of reasoning transparency we would normally aim for and think readers should update less than they would if they had as much detail as we do, but we ultimately felt like this was a reasonable middle ground to strike to allow us to share as much information with the community as possible while protecting the anonymity of interviewees.
appendix below.
Determinations regarding Owen Cotton-Barratt
The boards unanimously agree on the following:
On multiple occasions, Owen expressed sexual and / or romantic interest in women who were younger and less influential than he was. There were important power differentials between Owen and the women involved, sometimes formal and sometimes informal.
Multiple women expressed being upset by Owen's advances. Both the frequency and the content of the advances contributed to the women's feelings.
Julia Wise from CEA's Community Health Team gave Owen feedback that his behavior was inappropriate prior to some of the later instances of similar behavior.
Owen was inconsistent at acknowledging potential conflicts of interest with persons whom he expressed sexual and / or romantic interest in. He recused himself in at least one professional context, but did not seem to consistently acknowledge other potential conflicts in other instances.
In at least one case, Owen did not stop m...
Introduction
Last year, Owen Cotton-Barratt
resigned from EV UK's board of directors following reports of sexual misconduct. Prior to his resignation, accusations of misconduct from Owen
had been reported to Julia Wise at CEA's Community Health team, which is led by Nicole Ross.
EV US and EV UK jointly commissioned an independent investigation led by the law firm
Herbert Smith Freehills into Owen's conduct and whether the Community Health team had acted appropriately with the information they had been given. Following the investigation, the boards of EV US[1] and EV UK jointly deliberated over the findings and the appropriate response.
Below, the EV boards report their determinations and actions. We considered saying nothing or sharing significantly less information but decided it was in the best interests of the community to have some information upon which to update on the behavior of Owen Cotton-Barratt and the Community Health team. Our desire for transparency was not particularly motivated by the magnitude of the findings, and was instead motivated by the relevancy of the information for informing community members' future interactions with Owen and / or Community Health, the public nature of Owen's resignation, and community norms towards transparency and accountability.
Additionally, we felt that sharing as much information as we could was particularly important because of
the recent news that EV's projects are spinning out, as the boards' decisions only have an effect for projects so long as they remain part of EV. Projects will eventually set their own policies and won't have access to all of the facts we do, so we wanted to provide some information to enable the broader EA ecosystem to make better-informed decisions.
With that being said, we are constrained in how much detail we can share without risking the anonymity of the interviewees. The investigators noted that multiple interviewees made requests to protect their anonymity, and given their voluntary participation, we want to respect their wishes. We want people to continue to feel comfortable coming forward in investigations knowing that potentially identifying information will not be made public.
This means that in some cases below we present claims and board actions without all of the underlying evidence or reasoning. We recognize that this post does not have the same level of reasoning transparency we would normally aim for and think readers should update less than they would if they had as much detail as we do, but we ultimately felt like this was a reasonable middle ground to strike to allow us to share as much information with the community as possible while protecting the anonymity of interviewees.
appendix below.
Determinations regarding Owen Cotton-Barratt
The boards unanimously agree on the following:
On multiple occasions, Owen expressed sexual and / or romantic interest in women who were younger and less influential than he was. There were important power differentials between Owen and the women involved, sometimes formal and sometimes informal.
Multiple women expressed being upset by Owen's advances. Both the frequency and the content of the advances contributed to the women's feelings.
Julia Wise from CEA's Community Health Team gave Owen feedback that his behavior was inappropriate prior to some of the later instances of similar behavior.
Owen was inconsistent at acknowledging potential conflicts of interest with persons whom he expressed sexual and / or romantic interest in. He recused himself in at least one professional context, but did not seem to consistently acknowledge other potential conflicts in other instances.
In at least one case, Owen did not stop m...