Unity Technologies has named a new head of human resources in the wake of a sexual harassment lawsuit. Scott Pitasky, a former executive at Microsoft and Amazon, will serve as the new chief people officer at San Francisco-based Unity, maker of the popular Unity game development engine. John Riccitiello, the CEO of Unity, was previously serving as CPO. The former CPO, Elizabeth Brown, left the company in the fall of 2019.
The lawsuit dates back to June 2019, when Anne Evans, former vice president of talent acquisition, alleged that Unity had a “highly sexualized” workplace where executives talked openly about their sexual conquests. On top of that, Evans alleged that Riccitiello solicited her for sex on multiple occasions. She sued, and the case was pending in court, last I checked.
Unity said at the time of the lawsuit that Evans’ allegations were false, and the company does not tolerate harassment. Evans did not respond to a request for comment. I asked Unity about the wake of the lawsuit, but the company declined to comment.
In the sexual harassment and wrongful termination lawsuit, Evans noted that Riccitiello was romantically involved with Brown (who was Evans’ boss), and Unity said the board had been informed of that relationship. Unity said it fired Evans for actions related to her own dispute with another employee who worked for her. Evans said the firing was retaliation for her harassment allegations.
The arrival of Pitasky, who has two decades of human resources experience, means that the company has put some of that chain of events behind it. He will report to Riccitiello.
Pitasky previously held HR positions at Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks. Riccitiello said in a statement that Unity found a leader with experience growing businesses and global teams at scale and is a match with Unity’s culture. Riccitiello said the company is moving on to a new chapter where it puts its people and culture first.
Before joining Unity, Pitasky was the vice president of human resources supporting Amazon’s largest business, the worldwide consumer business. This role was Pitasky’s second stint at Amazon — the first was in 1999, where he helped grow the company from 800 employees to 8,000.
Unity has more than 1,400 people in its research and development group.