Los Angeles Times

Time’s Up has inaugural chief

Lisa Borders plans to disrupt status quo across all industries as first CEO for group.

- By Mary McNamara mary.mcnamara @latimes.com Twitter: @marymacTV

The organizati­on names ex-WNBA leader Lisa Borders as its CEO/president.

Time’s Up has named Lisa Borders, former president of the Women’s National Basketball Assn., as its first president and CEO.

The organizati­on, establishe­d less than a year ago as a response to the sexual harassment scandals rocking the entertainm­ent industry, has since broadened its scope to address larger issues of safety, equal pay and parity in a variety of fields.

Borders, the group announced Tuesday morning, will oversee “an umbrella organizati­on to reach all women, everywhere, linked to a series of affiliates and partners working to advocate for and create change in their respective industries.”

“With Lisa’s skills and leadership, Time’s Up is now in the best position to achieve what we all started — to create a more positive future for workplace culture and a more powerful network for working women of all kinds,” co-founder Shonda Rhimes said in the group’s statement.

Having raised $13 million after a cascade of sexual harassment scandals and the rise of #MeToo, Time’s Up initially set up a legal defense fund, administer­ed by the National Women’s Law Center, to help women who have experience­d sexual harassment.

For this year’s Golden Globes ceremony, the group called on female attendees to wear black, creating a powerful image in a scandalpla­gued awards season. Alist women including Rhimes, Reese Witherspoo­n, Ava DuVernay, America Ferrera and Eva Longoria acted as de facto spokeswome­n.

The group has since called for CBS to use any severance money earmarked for ousted CEO Les Moonves to aid victims of sexual harassment and for Brett Kavanaugh to withdraw his Supreme Court nomination.

Borders, who has also served as vice president of global community affairs for the Coca-Cola Co. and chair of the Coca-Cola Foundation, will oversee the group’s entertainm­ent branch as well as future initiative­s in other industries.

“To disrupt and reinvent the ingrained status quo, we will need all hands on deck to create and sustain enduring change,” Borders said in Tuesday’s statement.

“I’m thrilled to lead TIME’S UP and I am convinced that together, we will shift the paradigm of workplace culture.”

 ?? LM Otero Associated Press ?? LISA BORDERS, seen in 2016, will be the first president and CEO of Time’s Up.
LM Otero Associated Press LISA BORDERS, seen in 2016, will be the first president and CEO of Time’s Up.

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