Editor’s Relationship Raises Ethical Concerns at Harvard
The Harvard Business Review is not normally known for plots centering on seamy sex scandal. But the monthly bible of executive America is reeling from disclosures that its top editor, while researching an article, became a little too close to one of this country’s titans of industry.
Suzy Wetlaufer stepped down last week after the Wall Street Journal ran a juicy story about her “personal relationship” with former General Electric Corp. Chairman Jack Welch. In New York, Jane Welch reacted Monday by announcing plans to divorce the 66-year-old mogul.
Wetlaufer, 42, was unavailable for comment. But spokeswoman Karen Schwartzman said that after Wetlaufer’s romantic relationship with Welch was revealed, “it became apparent to her that she had lost the confidence of a number of key people on the staff. She made a decision that without their confidence, she could not effectively lead the organization, and it would be in their best interest for her to step down as editor.”
Still, the fact that Wetlaufer will remain on staff as an editor-at-large and will continue to occupy her coveted corner office sent the staid publication into revolt. At least six editors at the Business Review wrote letters calling for Wetlaufer’s resignation. After a meeting at which the divorced mother of four vowed to stay her ground, two staff editors quit in protest.
Executive editor Nicholas Carr issued a statement late last week branding the arrangement “a masterpiece of editorial fecklessness and an insult to the staffers.”
In an interview, Carr said he stood by his remarks but was too “exhausted” by the whole matter to elaborate further.
Alden Hayashi confirmed Tuesday that he had resigned because of Wetlaufer. Harris Collingwood also jumped ship. Collingwood could not be reached for comment, but in a posting under his name on a journalism Web site, he wrote:
“The senior editors of the Harvard Business Review insist that she will exert no influence over the editing. . . . Such compromises with reality are typical of the Harvard Business School Publishing’s senior leadership. My former colleagues . . . deserve better.”
Harvard Business School Publishing, an independent subsidiary of the Harvard Business School, generates about $100 million a year in revenue. The Business Review--with 240,000 subscribers--is its best-known publication. The enterprise also produces books, as well as the business school’s famous case studies.
The publishing company’s editorial director, Walter Kiechel, said Tuesday that he would not discuss personnel decisions “past, present or future.” He maintained, however, that “the integrity of the Harvard Business Review has not been compromised by personal relationships or anything else.”
According to published accounts verified by Kiechel, Wetlaufer met several times with Welch late last fall to prepare a question-and-answer feature for the Business Review.
Under the magazine’s policy, Welch was to be allowed to review the article before publication. He ended up demanding that the original title, “Jack Bites Back,” be changed to something more positive. The chairman of the board of Harvard Business School Publishing, James Cash, is a director at General Electric.
After word of her relationship with Welch leaked out, Wetlaufer took herself off the assignment. Two other editors were sent to redo the interview with Welch. It ran in the magazine’s February issue under the benign headline “Jack on Jack.”
A prepared statement from Wetlaufer said the romance with Welch began after the interview was written and edited.
Welch has declined to discuss the situation. His office in Connecticut issued a statement saying only that “my wife, Jane, and I are involved in a divorce.”
The Welches were married 13 years ago on Nantucket Island, where they have a home. Their primary residence is in Fairfield, Conn., and they also maintain homes in New York and Florida.
“We’re currently negotiating a settlement, trying to work things out and avoid going to court. If we do that, then the divorce is just a matter of paperwork,” Jane Welch’s lawyer, William Zabel, told Associated Press on Wednesday.
Zabel, who was hired Friday, said he was trying to keep negotiations amicable. “I’m trying hard to make it that way. It’s very early.”
The couple’s prenuptial agreement expired “a couple of years ago,” Zabel said. He would not discuss anything else about the negotiations.
Forbes magazine’s list of 400 richest Americans in September said Welch was worth $680 million.
Schwartzman said Wetlaufer’s relationship with Welch is ongoing.
Wetlaufer earned $270,000 in 2000. Kiechel said she will not retain that salary in her new position as editor-at-large.
Kiechel also said that the whole affair has occasioned some soul-searching at a publication that likes to think of itself as a beacon of insight and ideas. The magazine has drafted a task force, Kiechel said, “mostly of editors and others from around the country to develop tenets of community behavior”--ethical policies about how to handle intimacy between people who put out the magazine and people who are featured in it.
He praised his editorial staff of about 30 as “a strong-thinking and passionate bunch.” Then he paused to add, “What I meant was, they have passionately held ideas.”
