A former head of the men’s division at an esteemed modeling agency claims he was pushed out of the company to cover up the president’s alleged misconduct.
In a lawsuit filed in New York state supreme court, John Hendrich—a former executive vice president at The Society Model Management—alleges he witnessed President Chris Gay “inappropriate[ly] touching” a junior employee, Olga Tavares. When Tavares later issued a legal threat against The Society, Hendrich claims, the company fired him for failing to report the incident. According to the suit, Gay faced no repercussions. The Society, through counsel, tells The Daily Beast that an independent investigation of Tavares’ claims found no evidence of harassment or wrongdoing by Gay.
Hendrich and Tavares both worked for the men’s division at The Society, a subset of the larger Elite World Group—a modeling and talent agency with 11 offices around the world and more than 5,000 models and other personalities. (Bigger names repped by EWG include Helena Christensen and Christina Aguilera.) According to the suit, Hendrich joined The Society in 2019 to build out the men’s division, and Tavares joined shortly after to help scout talent. Gay, as president of The Society and co-CEO of Elite, worked closely with both of them, according to the suit.
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Hendrich claims he witnessed two incidents involving Tavares and Gay, the first of which occurred shortly after he and Tavares were hired. According to the suit, Gay overheard a conversation between Tavares and another employee about a visa issue and “assumed it was something other than what it was.” The suit claims Gay then raised his voice at Tavares and “berated her in an unwarranted and aggressive manner,” to the point that she was visibly shaken and began to cry.
The second incident occurred in August 2019. According to the suit. Hendrich, Tavares, and another men’s division employee were having a meeting the the New York office when Gay walked in and started asking Hendrich about scouting options in Los Angeles. Then he directed his questioning toward Tavares. According to the suit, he placed his hands on the back of Tavares’s chair and rocked it back and forth, then patted her on the shoulders three times—hard enough that Tavares looked surprised and said “ouch.”
As The Society points out in its own legal filings, Hendrich’s version of events and the lawsuit’s diverge slightly here. According to the suit, Tavares became visibly upset as a result of the encounter, and Hendrich encouraged her to report it. In an affidavit filed that same month, however, Hendrich states that Tavares “did not cry, seek medical attention, or otherwise lead me to believe that she was injured,” and adds that he did not think the interaction was “remarkable in any way.” As a result, he says, did not discuss it with either Tavares or Gay.
Regardless of what happened in the direct aftermath of the incident, both the lawsuit and Hendrich’s affidavit claim Hendrich did not address the issue again until that fall, when Tavares sent him an email about it. According to the affidavit, Tavares emailed Hendrich about her recollection of the incident on Sept. 3, and he responded: “Yes I acknowledge that all happened and I was there to witness it.”
Tavares then issued a legal threat to The Society, citing this and “other allegations,” according to Hendrich’s suit. (Tavares declined to comment to The Daily Beast.) As part of its investigation into Tavares’ complaints, the company questioned Hendrich. According to filings by both Hendrich and The Society, the vice president confirmed to investigators that he had witnessed the incident and received Tavares’ email about it, but hadn’t reported it to the company. He was fired shortly thereafter.
According to The Society, Hendrich was fired for neglecting to inform the company about Tavares’ potential claims against them. In a Feb. 10, 2021, letter, included as an exhibit in the fillings, the company’s general counsel claims Hendrich’s failure to inform them of Tavares’ “injurious conduct” was “a breach of your obligations and duties under the Employment Agreement, an act of gross carelessness or misconduct in the performance of your duties, and a breach of your fiduciary duties owed to The Society.”
“This coupled with a pattern of poor judgements, has exposed the company to a series of complaints,” the letter states.
“After an external investigation, John ‘Taylor’ Hendrich was dismissed for willfully suppressing a complaint and violating his obligation to report a harassment claim by one of his direct reports, breaching company protocol and delaying an immediate investigation,” a spokesperson for The Society Management emailed The Daily Beast after this story had been published.
“After The Society Management became aware of the alleged incident, a thorough investigation was conducted by outside counsel, which found no evidence of harassment by Christopher Gay. The investigation includes a sworn affidavit from Mr. Hendrich, which directly contradicts the claims cited in his lawsuit. The Society Management stands by the decision to fire Mr. Hendrich,” the spokesperson said.
Hendrich’s lawsuit, however, claims he is being retaliated against for confirming that he had witnessed Gay’s behavior; that he is being “scapegoated” by the company as part of a “misguided attempt to shield Gay from liability.” It also claims that Gay fired Hendrich over a Zoom call shortly after the investigation into Tavares’ claims ended, and that the president “belittled” him, telling him multiple times that he was “not a leader.”
“The Society’s position that Plaintiff was terminated for failing to report Ms. Tavares’ complaint is implausible, and is an obvious pretext for his termination based upon the fact that he witnessed an incident of alleged harassment by Mr. Gay toward Ms. Tavares, he conferred with Ms. Tavares about it, and then he offered information regarding said incident during the investigation,” the suit states.
Elite World Group has come under fire lately a women’s rights group urging it to confront Elite Model Management’s sordid history of alleged sex trafficking and abuse. The founder of Elite Models, John Casablancas, has been accused of sexually exploiting girls as young as 14 years old, and admitted to marrying a 16-year-old when he was 41. Former Elite executive Gerald Marie is currently under investigation by French authorities for allegations of sexual harassment and rape. (Marie has denied any wrongdoing.)
Elite World Group claims the alleged abuse occurred under different management, and that the company now has a “zero tolerance” policy for sexual misconduct and “leave[s] no room for any form of abuse, harassment, discrimination and/or gender bias.” But earlier this year, supermodel Carre Otis and the non-profit Model Alliance penned an open letter to Elite World Group co-CEO Julia Haart, accusing her of presenting herself as an advocate for women while profiting off of Elite’s checkered past. An Elite spokesperson responded by saying that the company was “shocked and saddened to see Model Alliance attack the only female leader in this industry.”
