Word: heckendorn
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Dates: during 1993-1993
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...would never happen. Heckendorn, now 50, says she finally ran into a high- level gauntlet of sexual harassment and discrimination. In a lawsuit filed last week, she accuses one male director of repeatedly calling her "babe" and another of inviting her to sit on his lap at a board meeting. Heckendorn, who claims she was passed over for the top job solely because she is a woman, is demanding $15 million in damages. "This is a way to seek a remedy and, hopefully, vindication," she says. National Medical, which is based in Santa Monica, California, denied the charges and vowed...
Regardless of how it is settled, Heckendorn's complaint could encourage similar challenges by high-ranking women who believe they have been wrongfully passed over. While women have brought record numbers of sexual harassment and bias suits in the past year, the pinnacles of corporate power have remained virtually all-male aeries untroubled by female challenges. "It's very unusual to have a suit at this level, although I've been approached by a number of highly placed executive women who have been harassed by a CEO or someone of equally high rank," says Ellen Bravo, executive director of 9to5...
...Heckendorn, a native of Valencia, Spain, lost the CEO race last spring during a management shakeup at National Medical, a troubled behemoth that faces $750 million in lawsuits for allegedly overbilling insurance companies. While Heckendorn claims to have been the handpicked successor of Richard Eamer, a co-founder of the firm who stepped aside in the shuffle, the top job went instead to Jeffrey Barbakow, a National Medical director and former executive of the securities firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. According to Heckendorn's suit, influential board members rebelled at the thought of a female CEO and called the idea crazy...
...contends that Heckendorn's ouster was unrelated to her gender. "You look at most of today's boards, and they are all going in the same direction, where they are comprised essentially of outside directors," says Barbakow. Bernice Bratter, a counseling center director who was the first ! woman from outside National Medical to gain a seat on its board, disputes Heckendorn's account of old-boyism among the directors. "I just don't know what she's referring to," Bratter says. "I've had a wonderful experience being on this board. I've been treated politely and with respect...
...Heckendorn, there is no relief just yet. Her abrupt firing after 12 years at the company has left her devastated, she says. Returning to work after filing her complaint, Heckendorn found that her key no longer opened her office door. "The senior vice president of human resources came up and unlocked it for me," she recalls. "Then he gave me a box and stood there while I packed up my things. When he asked if there was anything else of mine that belonged to the company, I said, 'Yes, my heart and soul...