City profiles
Leslie Moonves The CBS boss is clearly a believer in the power of “corporate invincibility”, said Edward Helmore in The Guardian. At an investor meeting last week, he “simply ignored explosive allegations” aired in a New Yorker report that he had “forcibly kissed” multiple women decades ago. Instead, he focused on the TV network’s “impressive financial achievements in the second quarter”. He seemed to be saying: “welcome to #Metoo, part two. Henceforth, corporate leaders faced with claims of harassment will no longer be shown the door, but will stay and fight their corner.” Still, the claims against Moonves, 68, “have put the CBS board in a bind”. The broadcaster has hired “two high-powered female attorneys from two separate New York law firms” to oversee an internal investigation. The Pepsico boss, who is stepping down after 12 years, will be “remembered for her efforts to make the snack and soda giant healthier” even as she fended off calls to break it up, said The New York Times. But her departure also highlights the worrying state of the “glass ceiling” – which appears to be coming back again. When Nooyi, 62, quits in October, only 24 women will be running S&P 500 companies – “a number that keeps falling”. Indianborn Nooyi’s own career owes much to unintended consequences, said the London Evening Standard. “I asked my parents for permission to study in America,” she recalls. “They were so sure I wouldn’t get in that they encouraged me. So I applied to Yale and got an excellent scholarship.”