Activision Blizzard Inc., a video game holding company hoping to close next year on its $69 billion sale to Microsoft Corp., has appointed three lawyers to labor and employment-focused positions and named a new general counsel for subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
The company promoted Caroline Elkin, its chief privacy officer, in July to the additional role of chief labor counsel. Activision the same month hired Jeannie Bohlman from Zillow Group Inc. as vice president of employment law and in June added Erin Rowin from UBS AG to serve as vice president for employee relations.
The personnel changes come as the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company copes with a unionization drive in the gaming industry, as well as lawsuits alleging gender discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
The company defeated a derivative lawsuit in May accusing Activision’s leadership of failing to take action against claims that it allowed a culture of sexism. In March, the company reached an $18 million settlement with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to resolve similar allegations.
Activision has taken steps over the past few months to make itself more worker-friendly as company employees have banded together to demand an end to certain practices, such as mandatory arbitration agreements.
A spokesman for Activision said the company “recently aligned...
Immigration enforcement have made arrests in connection with a suspected criminal network believed to be behind dozens of fake asylum claims from people pretending to be gay. It follows a BBC inve...