A high-level female executive at Yahoo Inc has been named in a lawsuit filed by a woman who worked under her, accusing her former boss of sexual harassment and wrongful termination.
Maria
Zhang, a senior director of engineering at Yahoo Mobile, has been sued
by Nan Shi, who was employed as a principal software engineer from
February 2013, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in Santa Clara
Superior Court in San Jose, California.
The
complaint alleges that Zhang coerced Shi to have 'oral and digital sex'
with her on multiple occasions in Sunnyvale and told her she would have
a ‘bright future’ at Yahoo if she had relations with Zhang.
Shi is seeking monetary as well as punitive damages. The lawsuit also names Yahoo as a defendant.
Officials at the tech company has come to Zhang’s defense in response to the allegations outlined in Shi’s complaint.
‘There
is absolutely no basis or truth to the allegations against Maria Zhang.
Maria is an exemplary Yahoo executive and we intend to fight vigorously
to clear her name,’ a Yahoo representative said in an email.
Zhang
founded her own mobile company, Alike, which was acquired by Yahoo in
2013. She also worked at Microsoft and Zillow before joining Yahoo,
according to her LinkedIn profile.
In the complaint, Shi accuses Zhang of unfairly downgrading her performance reviews for the second and third quarters of 2013.
According
to court documents, the company's human resources personnel refused to
conduct an investigation when Shi complained about her direct
supervisor's unwelcome advances.
Instead, according to the complaint, Shi was put on unpaid leave and eventually fired.
A native of Beijing, China, Shi graduated from Ohio University with a degree in computer science.
Shi's complaint states she first crossed paths with Zhang when she went to work for her start-up in Seattle.
When Yahoo
bought the company last year, both women moved to California.
According
to Shi, Zhang told her to stay in a temporary Yahoo housing unit in
Sunnyvale.
Court
documents allege the Yahoo executive forced her subordinate to work
grueling hours and write work emails in her off-time, 'sometimes right
after sex.'
In
an interview with Mercury News, Shi described how Zhang allegedly
surprised her one morning as she slept on the coach in their shared
apartment, crawled under the blanket without any clothes and began
kissing and hugging her.
‘I woke up and got scared,’ the woman told the paper. ‘I was shocked.’
In April, Silicon Valley Business Journal celebrated Zhang as one of Women of Influence of 2014.
Her profile stated that 'she is passionate about supporting women', and 'she actively mentors other women engineers.'
Among
her accolades, the Eastern Michigan University graduate listed giving a
keynote address at the women in Technology Conference in Beijing in
2013.
Zhang told the magazine that she was fortunate that she has many opportunities ‘to influence other women’s careers.’
When
asked to name something about her that would surprise others, Zhang
replied that she has a growing collection of Hello Kitty
paraphernalia.
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