The CEO of RadiumOne has been fired following a horrific domestic violence incident
The company’s board of directors fired Gurbaksh Chahal on Saturday night. The company confirmed the news in an email (see below for email) statement on Sunday, April 27. Chahal did not offer to step down willingly after the incident went public.
RadiumOne is a real-time bidding advertising platform which specializes in online, video, social and mobile. It was first founded in 2009 by Gurbaksh Chahal. It is the ninth largest online ad network.
The company said that Bill Lonergan, the Chief Operating Officer will be taking over the position of CEO. Chahal pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic violence and battery charges last week and paid a $500 fine. He ducked 45 felony charges and jail time.
Chahal defended himself in a blog post on Sunday. In it, he denied the severity of the abuse but admitted that he “lost [his] temper.” He lashed out at allegations that he beat his girlfriend 117 times, despite the fact that there’s a video of the incident. He called the video “bullshit” and accused the media of spreading misinformation.
Chahal also accused his girlfriend of “having unprotected sex for money with other people” and explained that when he confronted her about the discovery, they had a “normal” argument. He claims he only attacked her after she called 911.
As a result of the crimes, TechCrunch, the major Technology startup news service and conference organizer is dropping the online ad network as a sponsor of an upcoming tech conference.
Here is the company email sent:
RadiumOne terminates Gurbaksh Chahal as CEO and Chairman
Bill Lonergan appointed as CEO
San Francisco (April 27, 2014) – At a board meeting yesterday evening, RadiumOne’s board of directors voted to terminate the employment of Gurbaksh Chahal as CEO and Chairman of the company. Bill Lonergan, the company COO, will take over as CEO of the Company immediately. Bill has an extraordinary professional background and has helped build Blue Lithium and RadiumOne into industry leading brands. We are confident he will continue Radium One’s impressive trajectory.
RadiumOne builds software that automates media buying, making big data actionable for digital marketers.
RadiumOne uses programmatic advertising to connect brands to their next customers by incorporating valuable first-party data about behaviors, actions and interests demonstrated by consumers across web and mobile touch points.
Based in San Francisco, RadiumOne has offices across the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.
