C-suite hire puts BBVAin hot seat over race

Black candidate sues over discrimination

A candidate who lost out on a chance to become BBVA USA’s Houston market chief executive is alleging racial discrimination.

Michael Hood, formerly senior vice president at EastWest Bank in Houston, claimed in a suit filed Nov. 23 in Harris County District Court that he was told he was a good fit for the BBVA position, informed that the bank did not have qualified internal candidates and received an email that the senior executive vice president for talent and culture “highly endorses” him for the position.

Hood did not get the job, however, and alleges that Jeff Dudderar, a BBVA regional executive for Commercial Banking & Global Wealth whowas in charge of the hiring decision, did not check his references or schedule a promised interview and instead awarded the position to someone internally with less than the advertised required experience.

The explanation, according to the lawsuit, is race discrimination.

The lawsuit compared the qualifications of Hood, who is Black, to the man who received the position, who is white. Hood says he has 15 years of banking experience compared to appointee’s eight; the job description said at least 12 years were required for the position.

In an emailed statement, a BBVA spokesperson said the bank “does not comment on pending litigation ,” but “believe sin the intrinsic value of its employees’ diverse background sand rejects discrimination in any form .”

Beyond Hood’s qualifications, the suit also points to Dudderar’s

social media activity to question his judgment. One of Dudderar’s tweets, which has since been taken down, was a retweet of a message calling Kamala Harris a “predator” for “preying” on Brett Kavanaugh; another is a retweet of a post calling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “sickening.” Screenshots of the tweets were included in the court filing.

BBVA is not the only organization faced with potential legal implications of social media posts. Racist posts by some members, which could be seen as a violation of the Fair Housing Act, recently compelled the National Association of Realtors to bar members from making discriminatory posts on social media.

While language such as that alleged to have been used by Dudderar has become pervasive among some political leaders, Mark J. Oberti, Hood’s lawyer said in the professional realm it could suggest a demeaning attitude toward minorities.

“It shows, at minimum, bad judgment,” Oberti, who specializes in employment law, said in an interview. He suggested the tweets showed a problem with minorities and also called into question BBVA’s judgment in allowing a senior executive to use a public Twitter account that actively shared company news to also promote “controversial tweets.”

“Naturally the next thing we’re going to do is get into discovery, where we can require the company to produce internal emails, texts, documents to shed further light on the situation.”