So as everyone knows Mobile Ecosystem Forum disrespectfully (disgustingly?) kicked Puja off a panel on International Woman’s Day in the most dismissive way possible.
This lead to protests and, it seemed, it lead to change at MEF.
Indeed just last week, MEF announced new board members, and a new chair–seemingly in direct response to the protest. And in LinkedIn posts just last week global board members were liking a comment suggesting Troutman Amin join MEF and Puja be considered as a board member:
This all looked very positive to me and we’ve all moved on.
But apparently, MEF was just planning a sneak attack.
Received word today that new Chair Robert Gerstmann–the very same dude who was liking posts inviting us to become members of MEF just last week–apparently just sent around a very odd face-saving email to his new followers. Here it is:
Dear Members,
It is a pleasure reaching out to you in my new role of chair of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum.
It is unfortunate that the topic of my first message is about the news of a group of people smearing the name of MEF for what it seems the purpose of gaining visibility within our community. The MEF Board took time to evaluate the recent defamatory statements on social media directed towards MEF and our CEO Dario Betti by this small group of people, and we would like to assure all members that the comments were factually incorrect in addition to being malicious.
Let me reassure you about the following:
- The statements that there are no female members in the MEF board is evidently wrong. After the MEF election in Barcelona there are now two additional women in the board, i.e. we as members have elected 3 women to our 10-member board. Still room for improvement in the next election, but any claims that MEF is anti-women is nonsense.
- The statement that an individual was asked not to participate as a panellist for our Miami event because she was a woman is also false. At that event 32% of the speakers were women. The person in question did not answer multiple requests for a preparation call with the MEF team, so it was not possible to prepare for the panel with her. After multiple attempts over several weeks, a voicemail and an email were shared as it was not possible to reach her. In those communications, MEF explained that due to the impossibility to align ahead of the event, MEF would not be able to invite her to the panel this time. Furthermore, a phone call was offered to explain the decision. She decided to start a social media campaign instead of discussing with us.
- Additional claims, including the fact that MEF changed its board because of the social media campaign or the fact that MEF is collaborating with these people are also clearly unfounded.
Over this time, the MEF team has decided not to engage online with this group of people as this would have given the defamers more visibility. We would also encourage the MEF members to take the same course of action.
These events show how MEF has grown over the last few years. While these attacks were unwanted and uncalled for, our organisation becoming a target probably confirms that MEF has become more influential and grown to be truly part of the foundation of our industry.
Our association is behaving in an ethical and upstanding way. And we will continue to do so.
I would have hoped that my first email to you as chairman would have been on a more joyous topic, but we don’t always get to choose.
Best Regards
Robert Gerstmann
Chair, Mobile Ecosystem Forum
What. In. The. World.
Dario can you explain this please?
The bolded part in particularly is wild. These people are plainly living in an alternate reality. I guess we’ll release the emails so folks can see for themselves.
And you’ll DEFINITELY want a copy of Deserve to Win magazine’s April edition.
One last thing– be careful who you’re calling a defamer Robert. Those chickens can come home to roost very quickly. Luckily for you, I’m a nice guy.
More soon.