Statement from Declan Moore, CEO, National Geographic Partners regarding the termination of former Deputy Director of Photography Patrick Witty

At National Geographic Partners, we take seriously any allegation of sexual harassment. The questions and concerns raised by women inside and outside of our company about Mr. Witty’s behavior were investigated immediately and thoroughly by our Human Resources team and resulted in his termination.

While we received no complaints that Mr. Witty had violated our policies by engaging in harassing conduct during his employment with us, there was enough credible information brought to our attention by many women regarding past inappropriate behavior that we felt his conduct did not meet our business standards of conduct. We believe that Mr. Witty’s continued employment would not serve our commitment to a safe and appropriate working environment for our employees.

We have initiated the additional step of hiring an independent investigator to complete our review of this matter and to ensure that our managers are following the policies we have in place to safeguard our employees. We have already scheduled mandatory company-wide harassment training for both managers and non-managers and we are taking other internal steps to reinforce a safe and respectful workplace.