Away CEO Steph Korey isn’t stepping down after all

The Saga of Steph Korey, the embattled CEO of luggage start-up Away, took another strange turn on Monday morning when Korey announced she would not be leaving the company despite her December resignation. 

Chaos ensued following a story from The Verge in which employees criticized Korey for creating a toxic  environment by over-working employees and publicly shaming them via Slack.

Korey posted a lengthy apology on Twitter in early December, where she promised to reform, but she ended up resigning a few days later.  

That was the story until Monday morning. 

Stuart Haselden, formerly of Lululemon, was supposed to start as the new Away CEO. But according to the New York Times, he’ll instead become co-CEO with Korey after Away’s board of directors had a change of heart. 

In a new Slack message sent to Away employees on Monday morning and obtained by Business Insider, Korey said, “The inaccurate reporting that was published in December about our company unleashed a social media mob—not just on me, but also on many of you. In an attempt to protect the company, we announced something that had been planned for a bit further into the future: that Stuart would join as CEO and that I would move into a new role as Executive Chairman, intended as an active leadership role alongside Jen and Stuart. Unfortunately, this was misinterpreted in the media as me leaving Away, and has caused more confusion than clarity (both internally and externally). So, let me clear that up: I am not leaving the company.”

The message also said that Away retained famous defamation law firm Clare Locke LLP. Though Korey claimed the firm has “identified deliberate lies and distortions” in The Verge’s original story, no legal action has yet been taken. 

As for The Verge, they told the Times in a statement, “Steph Korey responding to our reporting by saying her behavior and comments were ‘wrong, plain and simple’ and then choosing to step down as C.E.O. speaks for itself.”