Major Professional Downfalls of 2024
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Below is our compilation of the most notable career downfalls of 2024, listed in alphabetical order. Additionally, we have prepared a list of significant career recoveries (check it out here), showcasing business leaders who, due to political alliances, stock bounces, and multimillion-dollar investments, have regained their prominence. Notable figures on this list include Adam Neumann, who was featured in our 2019 career crash list, and Elon Musk, whose leadership missteps have earned him mentions in both the 2022 and 2023 lists.
Joe Biden
Following a single term, the 82-year-old president is set to depart from the White House. Despite a robust economic record and a booming stock market, President Biden's re-election bid was tainted with controversy as voters and members of the Democratic party advocated for his departure. A subpar performance in the year's inaugural presidential debate marked the beginning of Biden's downfall. This, in turn, led to Vice-President Kamala Harris assuming the Democratic presidential nomination and ultimately losing the election.
Dave Calhoun
During a hearing with lawmakers in June, Dave Calhoun acknowledged the safety issues within the aircraft manufacturer's production process for the 737 Max and confessed that company whistleblowers were subjected to retaliation. At the time, the 68-year-old CEO had already announced his resignation by the end of the year. By July, a new CEO, Kelly Oterberg, had taken charge.
Calhoun had initially joined Boeing as a director and rose through the ranks to become non-executive chairman. He was appointed as CEO in 2020 with the intent to improve Boeing following two fatal crashes that resulted in the loss of 346 lives. However, the company continued to struggle with safety and manufacturing issues. In the first half of the year, a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane door opened during flight, sparking a Senate inquiry, grounded flights, and a Federal Aviation Administration audit that found Boeing failed to meet quality control standards. A whistleblower was discovered dead in March. By July, Calhoun had announced his retirement by year's end, and the company pleaded guilty to deceptive practices regarding safety issues in the 737 Max. However, the plea deal was rejected by a Texas federal judge. Boeing's challenges persist; last weekend, one of its 737-800 passenger jets operated by South Korea’s Jeju Air experienced technical difficulties during a landing attempt.
Sean Combs (P. Diddy)
Rap mogul Sean Combs, also known as P. Diddy, has experienced a career setback following a series of sexual abuse and sex trafficking allegations. In September, Combs was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transporting individuals for the purpose of prostitution in New York City. He pleaded not guilty and made multiple appeals for a change of venue, but spent Christmas in a federal prison in Brooklyn, where he will remain until his trial in May.
Just last year, the three-time Grammy award winner was honored with MTV's Global Icon Award. At his peak, rap superstar Combs' professional portfolio included the record label Bad Boy Records and various lifestyle businesses, such as fashion and fragrance lines, a Ciroc vodka partnership, and a TV network. Estimated to be worth $740 million in 2019 by Our Website, Combs now has an estimated net worth of $400 million following legal fees and damage to his brand's reputation.
Matt Gaetz
Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, 42, was on the brink of becoming the country's top law enforcement officer when president-elect Donald Trump nominated him for Attorney General of the United States. His nomination, however, was overshadowed by an ongoing House Ethics investigation regarding claims of sexual misconduct and drug use. One week later, he withdrew his nomination. The investigation continued, and in December, the ethics committee found evidence of Gaetz paying for sex with underage girls and purchasing illegal substances. Gaetz then resigned from his position as a congressman and now has a primetime show on the conservative network One America News, beginning in January.
Claudine Gay
Harvard University's former president announced her resignation on January 2, following mounting pressure from lawmakers and university donors to either step down or be dismissed. Gay's handling of antisemitism on campus was criticized during a tense congressional hearing in 2023. A group of 72 House Republicans and two House Democrats urged Harvard to terminate Gay's employment immediately. Billionaires Bill Ackman and Len Blavatnik joined the chorus of dissent, ceasing their donations to the university. Gay also faced allegations of plagiarism when conservative scholar Carol Swain accused her of not properly citing one of Swain's works.
Gay, the first Black president and second Black woman to lead an Ivy League institution, assumed office just two days after the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action in college admissions. Gay's appointment itself was marred by accusations that she only received the position due to her race. Despite the criticism, prominent activists defended Gay.
Mostaque's Stability AI was initially a dominant force, but due to mismanagement and overspending that went beyond reasonable limits, Mostaque effectively lost his grip on the company he founded in 2019. He renounced his position as CEO in June and was subsequently offloaded from being the primary shareholder in October.
Mostaque gained prominence thanks to the popularity of Stable Diffusion, a generative AI model created by the company that can generate images, videos, and even music from text. However, the startup's rise was underpinned by a string of exaggerations and untrue statements, which continued even after it secured $100 million at a $1 billion valuation for Stability Diffusion. Disenchantment with Mostaque's leadership grew among employees and investors following a series of broken commitments to develop personalized AI models for nation-states, fabricated agreements with companies like Amazon, a disastrous meeting with Jensen Huang from Nvidia, and a lackadaisical attitude towards preventing the tool from producing disturbing content like child sexual abuse imagery. Ultimately, the company ran out of funds and key researchers submitted their resignations.
Pat Gelsinger
After almost four years of inconsistent performance, Pat Gelsinger was relieved of his duties as Intel's CEO. While rivals Nvidia and AMD have reaped the benefits of the artificial intelligence boom, Intel has fallen behind. During his final earnings call in October, the company reported a colossal $16.6 billion net loss – far surpassing the $1 billion forecast by analysts and setting a record for its largest quarterly loss ever. Gelsinger was also in charge of Intel's most dismal day on the stock market in 50 years, when it suspended its dividend and announced a 15% workforce reduction in the summer.
Matters only worsened with analysts forecasting Intel's first annual loss since 1986 this year. A group of Intel shareholders are now suing Gelsinger for mismanagement of Intel Foundry, the chip manufacturing division that the company spun off into a subsidiary in September. They are demanding three years of salary compensation.
Karen Lynch
The influential businesswoman who once led CVS, the highest-ranked female CEO of a Fortune 500 company based on sales, and ranked 6th on the 2023 list of "Most Powerful Women", has stepped down. Lower sales, a faltering health insurance business, and reduced retail pharmacy purchases have caused the company's stock to reach its lowest point in over a decade. Wall Street investors had already lost faith in Lynch's leadership by August, following a series of dropped earnings expectations. By October, Lynch had vacated the CEO role, being replaced by pharmacy benefits executive David Joyner.
Lynch's leadership abilities and hiring approach have also suffered blows, with seven executive-level staff who she brought on in February 2021 leaving the company in the spring of 2023.
Dan Schneider
Dan Schneider, the Nickelodeon producer behind hits like “Zoey 101” and “iCarly”, faced severe criticism following an Investigation Discovery docuseries in March entitled “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,”. The show highlighted multiple allegations of a toxic work environment and inappropriate behavior towards young actors. Schneider later acknowledged his mistakes, but sued the producers and Warner Bros for defamation, claiming the documentary was a "hit job" with false or misleading statements about his conduct.
Schneider’s upcoming project, a film based on the Nickelodeon TV series he created “Henry Danger,” is scheduled for release on January 17th, but he has not announced any future projects.
Carlos Tavares
Former Stellantis CEO Tavares resigned unexpectedly in December due to disagreements with the board, according to his announcement. He had headed the Italian-American automaker, which owns brands like Jeep, Ram, and Chrysler, since January 2021, when he spearheaded the merger of Fiat Chrysler and French automaker PSA Group. Tavares acknowledged making “presumptuous missteps” during his tenure in the U.S. market, including cost cuts and elevating Jeep and Citroen base prices. He drew criticism for prioritizing short-term profit margins, causing damage to relationships with suppliers, unions, and dealers, as per CNBC.
Tavares' profit-oriented approach resulted in multiple rounds of workforce reductions and strained relationships with unionized workers. In September, the United Auto Workers union threatened to strike, asserting that the company was breaching its 2023 labor agreement, a claim that the company denied. Stellantis has eliminated at least 2,500 jobs this year, including the dismissal of 400 facility workers in Detroit, 2,450 in Michigan, and offering voluntary buyouts to its salaried workforce. Shortly before his resignation, Tavares announced the layoff of 1,100 Ohio Jeep plant employees, a move that has since been reversed by the company.
- Despite facing controversy and disagreements with the Democratic party, President Joe Biden's re-election bid ended in a loss, marking the start of his career downfall.
- Dave Calhoun, the former CEO of Boeing, resigned following whistleblower retaliation and safety issues with the 737 Max, leading to a new CEO, Kelly Oterberg.
- Rap mogul Sean Combs, also known as P. Diddy, is currently facing legal difficulties and a decline in his net worth due to sexual abuse and sex trafficking allegations.
- Matt Gaetz's nomination for Attorney General of the United States was overshadowed by an ongoing House Ethics investigation, leading to his resignation from his position as a congressman.
- Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares resigned due to disagreements with the board and criticism for cost cuts and elevating base prices, resulting in workforce reductions and strained relationships.
