US Entrepreneur Under Fire For Excessive Spending Including 30 First-Class Flights, Swiss Chalet
NDTV
GLAAD supported the expenditure, and the chair of its board of directors declared that the board "stands firmly behind" Ellis.
The President and CEO of GLAAD Sarah Kate Ellis is facing criticism following a shocking New York Timesreport that claimed she had lavished spending, including taking a $22,000 first-class ticket to the Cannes Lions and remodelling her home office with money from the non-profit LGBTQ advocacy organisation.
The investigation that dug into payments between January 2022 and June 2023 claims that Ellis' spending habits might be against Internal Revenue Service regulations in addition to those of the LGBTQ organization. The 52-year-old spending habits also worried the company's former chief financial officer.
According to NYT, GLAAD's internal travel guidelines advised staff to "be cost-conscious," take public transit and book economy flights. However, when examining GLAAD expense reports, employment contracts, tax returns, and additional documentation, the outlet discovered that the CEO had taken more than 30 first-class flights over one and a half years (including a $21,743 Delta One trip to Cannes Lions), spent nearly half a million dollars to rent a seven-bedroom chalet in Switzerland for a week while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, and private transportation services. Further, her renewal contract included $25,000 for the rental of a summer home in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and $20,000 for remodelling her home office which included ivory pillows and a chandler.
