A payments company CEO and founder who made international headlines for reducing his own salary to boost every employee to a minimum annual of $70,000 is stepping down from his post to fight assault and other allegations.
“My No. 1 priority is for our employees to work for the best company in the world, but my presence has become a distraction here,” Dan Price, who founded Gravity Payments in 2004, tweeted on Wednesday (Aug. 17).
“I also need to step aside from these duties to focus full time on fighting false accusations made against me,” he wrote. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Chief operating officer Tammi Kroll will take over as CEO.
“The company supports [Price’s] decision to step aside,” Kroll wrote in a statement Price posted on Twitter. “I am grateful to lead Gravity through this new chapter.”
Seattle prosecutors charged Price, 38, with misdemeanor assault against a woman following a January dinner meeting, as well as reckless driving; he pleaded not guilty in May, the Seattle Times reported.
The case is still ongoing, the Associated Press reported on Thursday (Aug. 18).
Allegations surfaced in 2015 that Price had abused ex-wife Kristie Colon but official charges reportedly weren’t filed. The allegations came to light during a TedX talk by Colon and reported by Bloomberg, AP said. Price reportedly denied the charges to Bloomberg.
Price was also sued by his brother and former business partner Lucas Price but a King County judge in Washington ruled in Dan Price’s favor. Dan Price started the business with seed money from Lucas Price, the Seattle Times reported.
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Headquartered just outside of Seattle, Washington, Gravity Payments employs 220 people and works with more than 13,000 merchants. The payments processing firm aims to streamline credit card processing at the point of sale.
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