Diana Taylor, the longtime accomplice of Michael Bloomberg, this week defended the presidential candidate’s use of nondisclosure agreements, tellin
Diana Taylor, the longtime accomplice of Michael Bloomberg, this week defended the presidential candidate’s use of nondisclosure agreements, telling those that could also be bothered by them: “It was 30 years in the past. Recover from it.”
Her remarks got here in an interview with CBS Information on Monday night time after a “Ladies for Mike Rally” in Houston. Mr. Bloomberg, a three-term former mayor of New York Metropolis, was criticized finally week’s Democratic presidential debate in Nevada over his remedy of ladies.
She stated the accusations didn’t mirror who Mr. Bloomberg is, however slightly revealed a “bro tradition” that existed on the time — a tradition that she stated she grew up in however has since modified.
“We have now come a really, very good distance,” Ms. Taylor stated, “and Michael Bloomberg has been on the forefront of that change.”
Ms. Taylor’s remarks, which have been broadcast on Tuesday — hours earlier than the Democratic candidates’ debate in South Carolina — got here three days after Mr. Bloomberg stated he was keen to release three women from nondisclosure agreements along with his firm, reversing his stance from final week’s debate.
Ms. Taylor’s feedback drew criticism from some who stated that she was being insensitive to girls who’ve confronted harassment and discrimination.
Erin McPike, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bloomberg’s marketing campaign, responded to the criticism on Tuesday, saying that Ms. Taylor had the utmost respect for girls and was addressing the troublesome office tradition that they’d endured for many years.
“She was certainly one of three girls in a gaggle of 100 new associates at Smith Barney within the ’80s,” Ms. McPike said on Twitter. “Nobody is happier than Diana that we’re studying from the previous and enhancing workplaces for girls.”
Mr. Bloomberg, who was challenged at last week’s debate by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to launch girls from nondisclosure agreements along with his firm, stated in an announcement on Friday that they may contact his firm in the event that they need to be launched from the agreements and publicly talk about their complaints about him.
“I’ve performed numerous reflecting on this problem over the previous few days and I’ve determined that for so long as I’m working the corporate, we gained’t supply confidentiality agreements to resolve claims of sexual harassment or misconduct going ahead,” Mr. Bloomberg said in the statement.
Ms. Taylor, who met Mr. Bloomberg in 2000, acted because the de facto first lady of New York City throughout Mr. Bloomberg’s three-term tenure as mayor.
A graduate of Dartmouth with an M.B.A. and a level in public well being from Columbia College, Ms. Taylor has pursued a multifaceted career — from Wall Road to authorities work.
She oversaw New York state’s sprawling public authorities system as an aide to Gov. George E. Pataki, and in 2003 was named superintendent of banking, with authority over hundreds of monetary establishments. Ms. Taylor was a managing director at Wolfensohn Fund Administration, lent her monetary acumen to boards as diverse as that of Citigroup, Sotheby’s and the Hudson River Park Belief and briefly thought-about campaigning for a Senate seat in 2010.