Thursday 18 August 2022 06:22 PM Seattle CEO announces he is stepping down after being charged with misdemeanor ... trends now
A Seattle CEO once hailed for cutting his salary to raise the wages of all his employees has stepped down amid misdemeanor assault and reckless driving charges.
Dan Price, 38, announced on Wednesday that he is resigning from Gravity Payments, the credit card processing company he founded back in 2004 at the age of 19.
'My No. 1 priority is for our employees to work for the best company in the world, but my presence has become a distraction here,' he wrote in an email to employees, which he shared on Twitter.
'I also need to step aside from these duties to focus full time on fighting false accusations made against me,' Price added, noting: 'I'm not going anywhere.'
The CEO has been accused of trying to force a woman to kiss him following a business dinner in January.
The allegations follow similar complaints by his ex-wife who said in a TED Talk that he would waterboard her.
Price pleaded not guilty to the accusations in May, and the case is now ongoing.
Dan Price, 38, announced on Wednesday he is stepping down from Gravity Payments, the company he founded in 2004 at the age of 19
He will be replaced in his position by former COO Tammi Kroll (pictured)
Court documents obtained by the Seattle Times say the 26-year-old woman called Seattle police on January 24, saying she met Price at a restaurant on Capitol Hill four days earlier.
The two had communicated on Instagram about work, and the woman said she reached out to Price to discuss 'professional matters.'
But Seattle prosecutors say Price instead cornered the woman in his Tesla after dinner, attempted to kiss her and then grabbed her by the throat when she refused.
The woman claims Price then drove her to a North Seattle parking lot, where he proceeded to drive 'doughnuts' with her in the car.
Company executives now say they thought it would be in the best interest for Price to step down amid the allegations.
'The company supports [Price's] decision to step aside,' COO Tammi Kroll said in a statement. She is now set to take over the company, saying: 'I am grateful to lead Gravity through this new chapter.'
He said in an email to employees his 'presence has become a distraction here' amid allegations he forced a woman to kiss him after a business dinner in January. He has been charged with misdemeanor assault and reckless driving as a result of the encounter
Price first founded Gravity Payments in 2004, using seed money from his older brother Lucas to build out the startup in his dorm room at Seattle Pacific University.
He has said he got the idea for the credit card processing company while playing in a rock band at a coffee shop in his hometown outside Boise, Idaho, where the coffee shop owner would often complain about how much she had to pay for credit card processing fees.
Over the years, Price made a name for himself in the Seattle business community, and by April 2015, he earned national headlines when he announced he was cutting his roughly $1 million salary to $70,000.
He said he would then use the company profits to ensure that every employee would earn at least that much within three years.
That amounted to a 46 percent jump from Gravity Payment's average annual salary of $48,000 at the time.
About 70 employees got raises as a result, with 30 doubling seeing their salaries double, CBS News reports.
Price said in follow-up interviews that he came up with the idea after reading a study showing that extra income improved the happiness of people who
