Video conferencing platform Zoom has fired its president Greg Tomb without showing any cause.
Tomb joined the company in San Francisco’s Bay Area in June last year and has worked in Google and SAP as well. He was vice president of sales at Google Workspace for more than a year.
Just days before that Zoom laid off 15 percent of its workforce amounting to approximately 1,300 job cuts. The company also trimmed the base pay for its executive leaders as demand for Zoom meetings has slowed down post pandemic.
Tomb’s role will not be replaced. Just weeks before Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said he was accountable for the mistakes that led to the layoffs and would reduce his salary by 98% for the coming fiscal year and forego his corporate bonus as well.
“We worked tirelessly and made Zoom better for our customers and users. But we also made mistakes. We didn’t take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities,” he had said last month.
Zoom’s popularity was at an all time high during the Covid-19 pandemic as people relied on video conferencing for remote work, education and socialising. However as the pandemic subsided and restrictions eased the company has struggled to keep its head above water necessitating the need for job cuts and cost-saving measures.
“Our trajectory was forever changed during the pandemic when the world faced one of its toughest challenges, and I am proud of the way we mobilized as a company to keep people connected,” said Yuan.
He also spoke about how they had to hire rapidly during the pandemic to support demand.
“We worked tirelessly and made Zoom better for our customers and users. But we also made mistakes. We didn’t take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or asses if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities,” he said.
According to a Bloomberg report, Yuan’s base salary in 2022 was $301,731 but his total compensation was $1.1 million. After the 98% pay cut, his new salary for 2023 will be $6,034.62.