After many allegations of sexual misconduct shook the organisation, the Confederation of British Industry will be renamed, according to the organization's new boss.
Rain Newton-Smith, the CBI's new director general, said the organisation would need to undergo a rebranding, in an effort to restore trust after more than 50 major corporations, including John Lewis and NatWest, suspended or revoked their membership.
“Personally, over time, I’m sure we’re going to see a new name for the CBI, but that’s just the wrapper that goes on the outside. What matters is what we do, what we deliver and our purpose,” Newton-Smith told the media.
“The CBI that emerges from this is not going to be the CBI of the past, that is clear. It needs to be a new, different, organisation.”
In a separate interview, she told the media she had raised concerns over sexual harassment when she previously worked at the CBI. “Whenever I have seen sexual harassment, I have acted and I raised those issues,” she said. “I supported staff who needed to raise them, and I think that’s … absolutely critically important,” she said.
“That’s not how it felt when I was here, but at the same time I, like everyone else, have read the stories of the survivors of rape in the papers from the outside, and I know that something has gone badly wrong,” she told the media.