Three executives leave Snapchat amid gender discrimination suit

Last year, the beautiful, fashionable and popular Emily White cruised the Cannes Croisette in search of ad partners for what was then a growing messaging service best known as a way for teens to send each other words and pictures that disappear quickly.

Last week, as Ellen Pao’s ongoing gender discrimination lawsuit continued in Silicon Valley, White departed as chief operating officer at Snapchat, which is now valued at $19 billion. White’s departure came alongside that of HR boss Sara Sperling and sales head Mike Randall, according to Re/code.

White had been a well-regarded boss at Google, Facebook and Instagram before arriving at Snapchat, but “[CEO] Evan Spiegel didn’t want the Google/Facebook playbook,” one source told On the Money. “There is an arrogance at those firms, and he wanted people to get their hands dirty.”

He also needs someone able to pull in the ad revenue to go with that stratospheric valuation.

In the same week, Fortune pointed out that Snapchat — like Tinder, Airbnb and Uber, three other hot Silicon Valley startups — had a board that is completely femme-free.

Snapchat PR chief Jill Hazelbaker told Fortune, ahead of the exits: “Women are well represented on the executive team.” At least Snapchat responded. Most of the top tech firms asked about board makeup didn’t even get back to reporter Erica Swallow for comment.