Pennsylvania leaders say Dave McCormick oversaw ‘a toxic work environment’ | The Pennsylvania Independent
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Pennsylvania Senate candidate Republican David McCormick takes part in a debate at the WPVI-TV studio, Oct. 15, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

After reporting in USA Today in September highlighted allegations of a toxic work environment at a hedge fund when Dave McCormick was its CEO, several elected officials from across Pennsylvania called on the Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate nominee to help the former employees who made the allegations tell their stories. McCormick has not done so, and now his Democratic opponent, Sen. Bob Casey, is running ads highlighting the issue.

McCormick led Bridgewater Associates, a Connecticut-based hedge fund, from 2009 to 2022, first as president and then as CEO. He has touted his business record as a qualification for public office.

In September, news outlets reported that a 2023 book about Bridgewater said McCormick had told employees who made allegations of sexual harassment at the workplace not to speak out.

“The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend,” written by New York Times finance reporter Rob Copeland, alleges that McCormick and company founder Ray Dalio pressured a woman who had accused a Bridgewater executive of groping to remain silent. “Maybe you’re remembering it wrong,” Dalio is said to have told her. “Maybe the issue is that you aren’t being a supportive public presence for us,” McCormick allegedly said.

Another account in the book describes an employee accusing her boss of improper conduct and leaving the company with a severance package and a nondisclosure agreement. “Shortly before leaving, she also received an unexpected in-person visit from Bridgewater co-CEO David McCormick. He told her that if she ever broke the agreement, she would be in litigation for the rest of her life,” Copeland writes.

Northampton County Council president Lori Vargo Heffner, Pittsburgh City Controller Rachael Heisler, Montgomery County Board of Commissioners chair Jamila Winder, and Delaware County Council chair Monica Taylor held an online press conference on Sept. 10 to urge McCormick to help pressure Bridgewater to release its former employees from the nondisclosure agreements.

“One by one as women came forward at Bridgewater, McCormick made sure these women’s stories never saw the light of day,” Heffner said, according to a press release issued by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. “These women deserve to share their stories. That is why I’m calling on David McCormick to release the women who came forward with allegations of sexual harassment from their non-disclosure agreements.”

“It is concerning to learn that as CEO, not only did David McCormick oversee a toxic work environment, but when he had the opportunity to support his employees he chose to pressure them to keep quiet about it,” said Winder. “As he continues to hold millions of dollars in stock in Bridgewater Associates, he needs to use his influence to allow these women to tell their stories.”

While McCormick is no longer an executive at Bridgewater, he has not publicly asked the company to release the accusers from their nondisclosure agreements.

McCormick’s campaign did not respond to an inquiry for this story; a spokesperson dismissed the allegations in September, telling the USA Today Network that they were a “retread from a year-old book” and that McCormick was proud of his tenure at Bridgewater.

Copeland’s book also says that Bridgewater’s leaders adopted guidelines for notifying potential guests about the frequent appearance of strippers at after-hours events at a mansion owned by the firm and encouraged employees to take off their shirts at company parties in so-called team bonding exercises. 

In a 2020 Wall Street Journal article, Copeland documented multiple allegations of gender pay discrimination at Bridgewater. A company spokesperson told the paper at the time, “As of our annual audit in December 2019, we can confirm there are no outstanding discrepancies in how men and women are paid at Bridgewater.”

On Oct. 23, Sen. Casey’s campaign released a new television ad highlighting the accusations. In the spot, a narrator says: “Intimination and retaliation. Reports made it clear that under Dave McCormick the world’s largest hedge fund was a dangerous place for women to work. They were groped, sexually harassed, or worse. But instead of protecting his female employees, McCormick protected his profits. Threatening one woman if she ever spoke up, she’d be sued for the rest of her life. Another was reminded he had the power to destroy her. That’s ugly. That’s Dave McCormick.”

In the Senate, Casey has worked to stop sexual misconduct and to hold predators accountable, sponsoring and co-sponsoring legislation to prevent sexual violence in the military and in educational facilities.

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