After investigative reporting revealed his undisclosed involvement in shooting at a synagogue with KKK individuals at age 17, the CEO of Banjo will leave the firm he founded.
In a transient blog put up, the firm announced a “change in leadership” and the resignation of its founder and CEO Damien Patton. The Utah-based firm will transition “to a novel, reconstituted leadership crew effectively straight away.”
“I’m confident Banjo’s finest days are easy forward, and must enact all the pieces in my energy to create definite our mission succeeds,” Patton said in the put up. “Nonetheless, beneath the recent circumstances, I rep Banjo’s handiest course forward is beneath diverse leadership.”
Patton leaves the firm as precious contracts with its home pronounce of Utah went on defend in gentle of the explosive say, revealed in OneZero. The parable revealed that at age 17, Patton drove a KKK member past a synagogue whereas he shot on the constructing. He reportedly went into hiding at a white supremacist training camp after the incident.
In a commentary equipped to TechCrunch, Utah’s Approved first price Total position of job said it became “insecure and dismayed” at experiences of Patton’s prior affiliation with hate groups.
The firm’s CTO, Justin R. Lindsey, who joined the firm fleshy-time lower than a year previously, will step into the head role.
Even previous to revelations of Patton’s past, Banjo had come beneath scrutiny by privacy advocates for its pivot from a social tech firm into a actual-time intelligence platform for law enforcement. Last year, the firm’s director of presidency affairs for Utah urged a community of public officials that Banjo “if truth be told [does] most of what Palantir does, we genuine enact it are living.”
In its blog put up announcing Patton’s departure, the firm emphasized its “unswerving commitment” to keeping deepest data and characterised its work as “expertise solutions that offer protection to privacy.”
