New York (CNN) — Harvard President Claudine Gay announced Tuesday she is stepping down amid a firestorm of controversy at the university.

“It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president,” Gay wrote in a letter to the Harvard community. “After consultation with members of the Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.”

Gay did not say when she plans to formally step down but she described the decision as “difficult beyond words.”

“Amidst all of this, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor — two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am — and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus,” Gay wrote.

She is resigning just six months into her presidency. The first Black president in Harvard’s nearly 400-year history and the second woman, Gay acknowledged how short her tenure was.

“When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity — and of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education,” Gay said.

She was undone in part by her responses at a congressional hearing last month, as well as an ongoing plagiarism scandal.

At the House hearing, Gay was criticized for a lack of direct answer about policies and procedures to combat bullying and harassment of Jewish students.

Alan M. Garber, who currently serves as provost and chief academic officer at Harvard, will step in as interim president until the school finds a new leader, the Harvard Corporation announced in a letter on Tuesday.

The Corporation said the search for a new president would “begin in due course,” but did not specify an exact timeline.

Gay said in her letter she would return to a faculty position “and to the scholarship and teaching that are the lifeblood of what we do.”

A spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.

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NEW ORLEANS – Coca-Cola was the title sponsor for this year’s Essence Festival of Culture. Throughout the week, they had conversations featuring ESSENCE CEO Caroline A. Wanga, performances by Rico Nasty, Ginuwine and many others. In this conversation with Chief of Staff for North America, Felicia Hale, she says the partnership with ESSENCE allows the brand to amplify the culture while reaching key consumers. For example, ESSENCE and Coca-Cola will present Season Five of “If Not For My Girls,” featuring an all new cast, Muni Long, Bia and Pretty Vee which creates a stage for conversation led by Black women regarding leadership within a chosen career path, love and relationships, plus how to effectively deal with life’s victories and defeats.

“This for us is really a moment to celebrate Black women and Black culture,” said Hale.  “We are here to uplift, celebrate her voice. Some of the activations that we have are really focused around wellness. The SmartWater activation is focused around living well and we’re having fun. The energy in the room, I think it’s just incredible. Women’s empowerment is a really important pillar for The Coca-Cola company. And it’s what ESSENCE really stands for and why it’s become a really important partner for us.”

In 2022, Coca-Cola committed to doubling its spend with Black-owned media companies. Hale says it was important to Coke to reinforce their commitment to Black-owned media outlets, such as ESSENCE in order to maintain a consistent and meaningful presence in the Black community.

“It is incredibly important to us and it was reflected in our commitment to doubling our media spend with minority owned media companies,” explained Hale. “We are on track to meeting our goal to get into a percent of our total media span with Black owned media companies. And if you think about things like ESSENCE and events that really celebrate the Black community, it’s an important pillar in our marketing campaigns as well as how we show up for the Black community.”

During the festival, the United States Supreme Court struck down the race-based portion of Affirmative Action. Between June 20 and July 3, at least five executives at top entertainment and media companies leading Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives have stepped down or been pushed out of their roles. LaTondra Newton at Disney, Vernā Myers with Netflix, and Janelle English formerly of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars) were notable departures. When asked if there would be any upcoming changes to Coca-Cola’s DEI initiatives, Hale says nothing will change. 

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion is a really important part of that strategy at The Coca-Cola company,” explained Hale. “Our goal is to reflect the communities that we serve through not only our associates and our leadership, but also through our recruiting pipelines. And so for us, it’s really an important pillar. And in light of the recent ruling from the Supreme Court, it really doesn’t impact what we’re going to continue to do and the way we’re going to show up for minorities in so for us, it really is a moment in history, obviously. But certainly, we’re going to continue to focus on making advancements around representation within our company.”

Lastly, Coca-Cola is ubiquitous in Atlanta’s history, as omnipresent like the Georgia red clay, and has appeared in every single major pop culture event beginning with the commercial which featured Mean Joe Greene in 1979 that made everyone smile. How does a company this large and well-known continue to innovate and find new ways to reach consumers not only in Atlanta, but around the world?

“We want to make sure that we are speaking to our consumers in a way that is relevant to their lifestyles,” Hale explained. “Through our beverage portfolio, we are offering a wide range of choices and options for our consumers. Whether it be through our brands or through our packaging. 

So, marketing to consumers and making sure that we have a product fit for their needs at any moment across all occasions is an important part of our strategy and will continue to be as we think about our media spend and how we diversify showing up across various moments and touchpoints.”

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NEW ORLEANS — During the 2023 Essence Festival, TIAA, a Fortune 100 provider of secure retirements and outcome-focused investment solutions, partnered with the Global Black Economic Forum to #RetireInequality. Currently, there is a 30% gender retirement gap between men and women. However, 54% of Black Americans do not have the level of retirement funds to maintain their standard of living. With the negative statistics serving as a backdrop, designer Fe Noel, GRAMMY-award winner Wyclef Jean, choreographer and dancer Sean Bankhead and author Lynnette Khalfani-Cox joined with TIAA to empower and inspire the festival attendees.

Everyone has heard of financial literacy includes the ability to ​​create a budget, plan for retirement, manage debt, and track personal spending. However, this interview begins with one question: What does retirement literacy mean?

“I think the one key thing and the key message we need to get across is save something, save something, invest that something, and allow that income to grow for you,” said Kourtney Gibson, Chief Institutional Client Officer with TIAA. “So that you actually have income in retirement, allow that investment that you’re making in yourself to grow, so that you can have a steady paycheck? Well, after you’re done working. That’s what we mean, when we talk about lifetime income at TIAA. It’s what we’re focused on. When we talk about retiring and equality, the income gap between African Americans and whites versus Hispanics is tremendous. Between women and men, it’s huge. It is time now to really focus on retiring those inequalities, so that we can ensure everyone has the ability to have a successful and secure future.”

On average, Black families have 85% less accumulated wealth than White families. The Great Recession exacerbated the Black-White wealth gap and left Black households more susceptible to the COVID-19 recession. Additionally, White households are also 2.8 times more likely to receive an inheritance than Black households, according to a 2021 study conducted by the Wharton School of Business. In addition, Black Americans are less likely to be homeowners, leaving them exposed to rent increases, have more student debt making it harder to save for retirement and do not have the access to retirement plans. 

“Define what you want your future to look like,” Gibson exclaimed. “Dream. Dream big. Think about what I want to have when I decide to stop having income coming in and how do I want to live and work backwards. Set your own wealth goals. Then work with someone: whether that person is on a computer, an online tool, or whether it’s an actual human from a financial advice perspective to help you define how you reach that goal.”

TIAA was inspired by their talent partners to create the Legacy Makers Studio at this year’s Essence Fest because of their legendary success in their respective fields, and personal connections they have to the #RetireInequality campaign. 

The Legacy Makers Studio is a physical representation of how a person’s achievements and career can leave a legacy for your family when coupled with financial preparedness and retirement planning along the way.  One of the major influencers that partnered with TIAA was LSU women’s basketball star Flau’Jae Johnson. 

Gibson believed that the people left inspired to create their own legacies through engaging panel discussions, meet and greets, exploring the legacies of TIAA’s partners, and through the advice of TIAA Financial Professionals that were around their space during the festival.

“Forget the big words, compound interest, asset allocation, all those things are important,” Gibson said regarding getting into the investment world. “But the bottom line is, how much money do I need to save today? At what rate? Do I need it to grow and for how long? And then what will that give me as it relates to income? When I decided to stop working? What does that look like? That’s where it starts.”

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The Atlanta Voice is saddened by the news that Atlanta civic leader and business icon, Thomas Dortch, passed away on Wednesday, February 15, at the age of 72. We will remember “Tommie” Dortch as a civil servant, businessman, philanthropist, pioneer, and activist in our community. He was a former CEO of Atlanta Transportation Systems, Inc.; Chairman and CEO of Cornerstone Parking; Managing Partner of FAD Consulting, LLC; Chairman of the board for Friendship Force International; Chairman of the board for the Fulton/DeKalb County Hospital Authority; Vice Chairman of the board for the Grady Memorial Hospital; Chairman of Lancor Parking Management, LLC.  Dortch also served on the board of trustees for Leadership Atlanta; Chairman of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation  (NCBCP) and Chairman of the 100 Black Men of America, Inc. 

He was also the Chairman and CEO of TWD, Inc, a consulting firm that he created. He founded the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc., and co-founded the Georgia Association of Minority Entrepreneurs (GAME), and the Greater Atlanta Economic Alliance.

Dortch not only made a huge impact in the City of Atlanta and its metropolitan area, but his influence was felt throughout the nation. We have lost a very impactful and influential man, and his absence will not go unnoticed.

The Atlanta Voice sends our thoughts and prayers to his family and loved ones.

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Titan CEO and headline sponsor Wipfli LLP are pleased to announce Kwame Johnson, President & CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta as a 2023 Georgia Titan 100. The Titan 100 program recognizes Georgia’s Top 100 CEO’s & C-level executives. They are the area’s most accomplished business leaders in their industry using criteria that includes demonstrating exceptional leadership, vision, and passion.  Collectively the 2023 Georgia Titan 100 and their companies employ upwards of 118,000 individuals and generate over $36 billion dollars in annual revenues. This year’s honorees will be published in a limited-edition Titan 100 book and profiled exclusively online. They will be honored at an awards ceremony on April 27^th, 2023, and will be given the opportunity to interact and connect multiple times throughout the year with their fellow Titans.

“The Titan 100 are changing the way that business is done in Georgia. These preeminent leaders have built a distinguished reputation that is unrivaled and preeminent in their field. We proudly recognize the Titan 100 for their efforts to shape the future of the Georgia business community. Their achievements create a profound impact that makes an extraordinary difference for their customers and clients across the nation.” says Jaime Zawmon, President of Titan CEO.

Kwame is the President & CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta (BBBSMA). He oversees the largest and most effective youth mentoring agency in the state of Georgia. He leads a team of approximately 40 staff who provide support to more than 1,100 one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.

Kwame found his passion while incarcerated during his senior year of high school. During this challenging time, he decided to change his life and made history by becoming the first youth to ever take his SATs in jail. Kwame was accepted into Hampton University and later decided to leave college at the age of 19 to become a social entrepreneur. He has dedicated his life to service and helping youth reach their full potential.

Kwame’s passion led him to Washington DC where he worked in youth development for over 12 years. He served as the National Program Director for the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE) focused on helping residents of low-income neighborhoods address the problems of their communities. Kwame also served as the Director of Corporate Relations for the national office of Communities In Schools, the nation’s largest dropout prevention organization. Prior to joining BBBS, Kwame served as the Executive Director of the Greater Atlanta Region for PowerMyLearning, where he increased the organization’s revenue by 65% and program reach by 115% within three years.

Kwame has received national recognition for his work including the Social Entrepreneur Program of the Year Award from the Manhattan Institute. He recently received the highly distinguished Atlanta Business Chronicle 2020 Most Admired CEO Award and the Atlanta Business League 2020 Men of Influence Award. Kwame has received both the Atlanta Business Chronicle 40 Under 40 Award and the Georgia Trends 40 Under 40 Award. He was the first non-alumni to receive the coveted Morehouse College Dr. Joseph Draper Service Award.

Kwame is a recent graduate of Leadership Atlanta. He holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland and Executive Education Certificates in Nonprofit Strategy and Management from New York University, Babson College, and Harvard Business School. Kwame and his wife Sabria have one son Kwame, Jr.

“I am incredibly grateful to be listed in the 2023 Georgia Titan 100,” says Kwame Johnson. “I believe that all young people have potential, they just need empowerment from mentors to help them reach their goals. This year’s Georgia Titan 100 is full of potential, and I am honored to be among this list of role models for Georgia youth.”

Kwame Johnson will be honored at the Titan 100 awards on April 27^th, 2023 at Zoo Atlanta: Savanna Hall.  One of the city’s most treasured historic buildings the 1921 building has been revitalized by Zoo Atlanta for its new life today.  As home of the Atlanta Cyclorama for more than 90 years, the building is famous for its grand scale and neoclassical architecture. This unique cocktail-style awards event will gather 100 Titans of Industry and their guests for an evening unlike anything that exists in the Georgia business community. “On behalf of all the partners and associates at Wipfli we congratulate all the Titan100 winners. It’s an honor to recognize this diverse group of leaders in the Atlanta community. We appreciate the lasting impact each leader has made, and continues to make, in building organizations of significance both in Atlanta and abroad. Your ingenuity and creativity have set you apart, and the honor of being seen as an industry Titan is richly deserved,” says Bill Boucher, Partner at Wipfli.

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Al McRae, Atlanta market president for Bank of America and managing director/Diverse Segments Business Development executive for Bank of America’s Private Bank, has been appointed by GBA Chairman Rhodes McLanahan, CEO of First American Bank & Trust Company in Athens, to serve a three-year term as an At Large member of the board of directors of the Georgia Bankers Association (GBA).

“We’re excited to welcome Al to the board and look forward to benefiting from his extensive experience and valuable perspective in service to the industry and ultimately, the hometowns, families and businesses served by Georgia’s banks,” McLanahan said.

McRae has held various positions with Bank of America focusing on the wealth management needs of high-net-worth families in the areas of investment management, estate planning, banking and credit. As president of Bank of America, Atlanta, he serves as the bank’s leader in the local market, responsible for delivering responsible growth for shareholders, clients and communities. In addition, as managing director and Diverse Segments Business

Development executive for Bank of America’s Private Bank, McRae is responsible for identifying and implementing strategies for the bank to drive responsible growth within the diverse high net worth client segment. 

Active in his community, McRae serves on the boards of the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Georgia State University Foundation. He’s also an active member with the Rotary Club of Atlanta and is a class of 2023 participant with Leadership Atlanta.

McRae earned his undergraduate degree in finance from Georgia State University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®).

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LeBron James is a billionaire, marking the first time an active NBA player has achieved that milestone, according to one calculation.

Forbes said that the Los Angeles Lakers star has “maximized his business,” generating more than $1.2 billion in pretax earnings. His NBA salary from three different teams during the past 19 years has amounted to $383 million, and James has “raked in upwards of $900 million in income from endorsements and other business ventures,” the magazine said.

In addition to lucrative endorsement deals with Nike, AT&T, PepsiCo and Walmart, Forbes said that James structured his deals to include equity in those brands, giving him a “cut of the upside instead of a quick paycheck.” The four-time NBA champion also has investments in fitness startup Tonal, ridesharing company Lyft and eatery upstart Blaze Pizza.

Another lucrative investment for James is TV and movie studio SpringHill Entertainment, which Forbes values at around $300 million. The studio helped produce “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” a movie he starred in that earned $163 million in box office receipts worldwide.

James has long dreamed of being a billionaire.

“It’s my biggest milestone,” he told GQ in a 2014 interview. “Obviously I want to maximize my business. And if I happen to get it, if I happen to be a billion-dollar athlete, ho. Hip hip hooray! Oh, my God, I’m gonna be excited.”

Notably, Michael Jordan is the only other basketball billionaire on Forbes’ list. He didn’t achieve that until 2014, more than a decade after he retired.

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Porsche recently announced that Ayesha Coker has been named Vice President, Marketing of Atlanta-based Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (PCNA). As VP of Marketing, Coker oversees experiential brand marketing, strategic partnerships, sports marketing, motorsport and the Porsche Club of America in the U.S. Coker also leads the operations for the Porsche Track Experience, Porsche Travel Experience as well as the Porsche Experience Centers in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Ayesha began her career with PCNA in 2010 as an experiential brand event manager, responsible for the planning, development and management of major event marketing programs, including automotive shows and brand events. Over the course of her career at PCNA, she has held various roles including manager and senior manager of Events and Sponsorships and Director of Experiential Marketing. She joined the Executive Committee in January 2022, making her the first African American and first woman of color to join the leadership team.

Before joining Porsche, Ayesha served in various field event and marketing roles for automotive marketing companies including, Merkley and Partners and GMR Marketing.

Ayesha holds a Bachelor of Science in Fashion Merchandising from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and an Associate Applied Science degree in Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

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CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off Facebook’s quarterly earnings call by addressing the latest wave of coverage based on a trove of leaked internal documents on Monday.

“Good faith criticism helps us get better, but my view is that we are seeing a coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company,” Zuckerberg said. “The reality is that we have an open culture that encourages discussion and research on our work so we can make progress on many complex issues that are not specific to just us.”

The company’s results come amid perhaps the biggest crisis in the social media giant’s 17-year history. Tens of thousands of pages of internal documents leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen informed the Wall Street Journal’s “Facebook Files” series, and on Monday, a flood of additional news coverage by a consortium of 17 US news organizations, as well as hearings with US and UK lawmakers. The documents provide the deepest look yet at many of Facebook’s biggest problems, including its struggles to regulate hate speech and misinformation, the use of its platform by human traffickers, research on harms to young people and more.

Facebook has pushed back on many of the reports, saying they are misleading and mischaracterize its research and actions. Zuckerberg last commented on the situation following Haugen’s Senate hearing earlier this month, in a statement in which he tried to discredit the whistleblower. Still, on Friday, another former Facebook employee anonymously filed a complaint against the company to the SEC, with allegations similar to Haugen’s.

But despite all the bad headlines, the company reminded investors on Monday that it continues to be a money-making machine.

Facebook reported $29 billion in revenue for the three months ended in September, up 35% from the same period a year earlier. The company posted nearly $9.2 billion in profit, up 17% from the year prior. The number of people using Facebook’s family of apps grew 12% year-over-year, to nearly 3.6 billion during the quarter.

The results were nearly in line with Wall Street analysts’ projections. Facebook’s stock rose as much as 3% in after-hours trading Monday following the earnings report, before falling to around 1% higher.

Facebook is no stranger to PR crises. And in most cases, Facebook’s business has continued to chug along at a healthy clip despite outcry from regulators and the public.

But this time could be different. Facebook’s massive ad business is already in a vulnerable state because of recent changes to Apple’s app tracking rules. Apple’s iOS 14.5 software update, which went into effect in April, requires that users give explicit permission for apps to track their behavior and sell their personal data, such as age, location, spending habits and health information, to advertisers. Facebook has aggressively pushed back against the changes and warned investors last year that the update could hurt its business if many users opt out of tracking.

On Monday, Facebook warned that the iOS 14 changes could create “continued headwinds” in the fourth quarter of 2021.

“We’ve been open about the fact that there are headwinds coming and we experienced that in Q3. The biggest is the impact of iOS 14 changes,” COO Sheryl Sandberg said on the company’s earnings call Monday. “As a result, we’ve encountered two challenges: one is that the accuracy of our ad targeting decreased, which increased the cost of driving outcomes for our advertisers, and the other is that measuring those outcomes became more difficult.”

While much of the world spent the day focused on Facebook’s real-world harms, the company hinted to investors in the report that it wants them looking forward, not backward. Starting in the fourth quarter, the company plans to break out Facebook Reality Labs — its division dedicated to augmented and virtual reality services — as a separate reporting segment from its family of apps, which includes Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook’s namesake social network.

CFO Dave Wehner said Facebook is investing so heavily in this newer division that it will reduce “our overall operating profit in 2021 by approximately $10 billion.”

In a statement with the results, Zuckerberg also focused on what’s next: “I’m excited about our roadmap, especially around creators, commerce, and helping to build the metaverse.”

During the earnings call, Wall Street analysts asked much more about new Facebook initiatives and products like the metaverse and Instagram Reels than about Monday’s news coverage, a reminder that investors often prioritize the company’s potential for growth over its potential for harm. Evercore ISI did ask Zuckerberg to evaluate the company’s progress on building artificial intelligence that can identify problematic content.

Zuckerberg pointed to the company’s quarterly transparency reports, which identify “what percentage of the content that we act on is our AI … finding rather than people having to report it.” He said that “in most of these categories … 90-plus-percent of the content that we act on, we’re identifying largely through the AI system.” However, he noted that the success of its systems can vary by category.

“Some of the categories, like hate speech, have been harder,” he said, because “we’re operating in around 150 languages around the world … there’s a lot of cultural nuance in this.”

Zuckerberg also attempted to make a rallying call to his staff.

“I know there is a lot of scrutiny of our efforts, and I guess I just want to say to the team and the people who work on this that I’m really proud of the progress that they make,” he said.

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Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday filed class-action lawsuits targeting Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter and its CEO Jack Dorsey, as well as YouTube and its parent company’s CEO Sundar Pichai, in a Hail Mary move after being removed from their platforms. Courts have typically dismissed similar suits, and these are likely doomed from the start as well.

The announcement about the lawsuits comes after the companies removed Trump’s access to their platforms in the aftermath of the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill. Twitter banned Trump altogether, and he is currently suspended from Facebook for at least two years. YouTube also suspended Trump in January, but it said in March that his account would be reinstated when the company is confident that the risk of violence has receded.

Twitter, Facebook and Google, which owns YouTube, declined to comment.

Tech companies have consistently rejected claims that their platforms discriminate based on partisan ideology. Independent studies have not corroborated such accusations, and several have found that partisan voices, particularly on the right, are among the most engaged-with on the platforms.

Trump’s suits continue a trend that began during his presidency: Throwing the book against companies he perceives to be a threat to his political brand. Last spring, while he was still in office, Trump signed an executive order aimed at “preventing online censorship” and seeking to expand legal liability for tech companies.

But the tech companies are legally permitted to run their platforms as they see fit, and courts have dismissed a string of similar lawsuits. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all cited the potential for future incitement of violence or risks to public safety following the Capitol riot in announcing their decisions to remove Trump’s accounts.

Trump said during a press conference Wednesday that he is asking a court in Florida “to order an immediate halt to social media companies’ illegal, shameful censorship of the American people.”

“We’re going to hold big tech very accountable,” he said.

The push to bring legal action against tech platforms over bias allegations has spread nationwide. In May, Florida passed a law allowing politicians that have been suspended or removed from social media to sue those companies.

But the effort has run up against the realities of current law — and the Constitution. Last week, a federal judge blocked Florida’s law from going into effect, saying government attempts to force social media companies to host political speech violates the First Amendment. (Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has vowed to appeal.)

The judge’s ruling also said the Florida law ran counter to a federal law Trump had sought to weaken with his executive order: Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934. Section 230 provides legal immunity to websites that moderate user-generated content, and has been used by tech platforms to nip many lawsuits in the bud.

In Congress, numerous bills have been proposed to narrow the scope of Section 230, including by some Democrats who believe tech companies are not doing enough to curb hate speech and harassment online.

But much of the momentum for changing Section 230 has come from Republicans upset about how social media companies have enforced their rules when conservatives have broken them. Trump, in his order, accused tech companies of “engaging in selective censorship that is harming our national discourse,” and pushed for the Federal Communications Commission to “clarify” Section 230.

Legal experts and FCC officials themselves questioned the agency’s authority to do that, citing the same First Amendment issues that tied up the Florida law. President Joe Biden later rescinded Trump’s order.

Now, having failed to turn the machinery of the US government against the tech industry, Trump is trying to get at it through the courts himself. But with Section 230 still on the books, it’s unclear how he could succeed.

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