RIA Carson Group faces retaliation from ex-CMO

A former head of marketing at Carson Group has filed a lawsuit accusing the company of gender and disability discrimination and unlawful retaliation against her after she raised the alarm about an alleged sexual assault by a Carson Group employee of a participant in a conference she helped organize.

Mary Kate Gulick said Carson Group executives ignored her concerns about the incident, which occurred at the event in late 2022, according to a complaint filed in March in state court in Nebraska but moved last week to federal court in Omaha . Gulick was subjected to “demeaning and insulting comments” about her inability to “simply get over it,” according to the complaint.

Carson Group’s hostility and inaction caused Gulick to develop depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, culminating in her dismissal in June 2023, nearly two years after she joined the registered investment adviser, she alleged.

“She was deeply disturbed by Carson Group’s complete lack of concern that an alleged sexual predator was working there, interacting and traveling with Carson Group’s female employees,” Gulick wrote in her complaint.

Gulick’s complaint said the issue was emblematic of the company’s broader cultural problems. Carson Group’s human resources chief wanted to fire the alleged attacker, but former CEO and founder Ron Carson opted to keep him on board, the complaint said. Gulick said executives, including the head of human resources, also told her not to speak about the alleged attack or object to the way it was handled.

Gulick supported her lawsuit with screenshots of exchanges in September 2022 in which current CEO Burt White questioned the company’s “founder-based culture” and said he was “so filled with confusion, anger and anxiety” that he could barely hold his camera. during internal video meetings.

“I was the cultural leader at LPL, but here I don’t embrace it and feel like I’m fighting against everything Carson is,” White wrote to Gulick. “I don’t want to be associated with so much that this company does and what it stands for.”

White, a former LPL executive who joined Carson Group in 2022 as chief strategy officer, was named CEO earlier this month when Carson moved into the role of executive chairman.

A spokesperson for Carson Group did not return a request for comment.

Gulick said she considered leaving the company but wanted to stay to protect others, including women she hired who were “put at risk by Carson Group’s failure to address the threat posed by the tolerance of sexual misconduct.”

Although Carson Group allowed her to go on medical leave in February 2023, she also cut her bonus by 25% that month, citing her “negative communications.” White then fired her during a meeting in June 2023, calling her, in part, her “accident,” according to the complaint.

Gulick has been working with California-based marketing firm FiComm Partners since 2023. Before joining Carson Group in June 2021, she spent four years at TD Ameritrade Institutional, serving as director of digital and content marketing. Before that, she worked for two years as a marketing manager and creative director at IBM.

Carson Group, which is backed by Bain Capital, has approximately 150 partner companies managing $35.5 billion in combined assets from 50,000 households.