Workplace Abuse as a Path to VC Partner?

Notorious abuse enabler from Mercy for Animals named to new investment fund

It’s well known that the animal rights movement has a massive #MeToo problem. Back in 2018, news broke in the New York Times of serious allegations of sexual harassment by Wayne Pacelle, then CEO of the Human Society of the United States.

Around the same time, HSUS’s head of farm animal protection Paul Shapiro was profiled at length by Politico for his own disturbing sexual abuse allegations.

Both men left HSUS, but of course, their careers didn’t end there.

It has been painful to watch Shapiro get handed his own food company, propped up by his long-time buddies in the movement, including Bruce Friedrich of the Good Food Institute. So much for accountability.

Adding insult to injury, yesterday a new investment fund was announced to advance “sustainable protein”, with another known problematic figure named as one of three partners. Milo Runkle is the founder of leading animal rights group Mercy for Animals (which he ran for 20 years) and co-founder of the Good Food Institute.

Numerous allegations of workplace abuse emerged on Runkle’s watch. Here is how Marc Gunther of the Nonprofit Chronicles describes him last year in an article about how Runkle was disinvited from a vegan conference after a loud outcry:

Women complained, vociferously, when they learned he was involved. In emails to the AVASummit, they assailed Runkle, describing him as unreliable, dangerous and indifferent to the mistreatment of women, not so much because of his own behavior but because he hired and supported Nick Cooney, a one-time star of the movement who is reviled by some women. Runkle and Cooney did great damage, according to their critics, in part by driving talented activists out of the movement.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, Nick Cooney also runs his own investment firm.

It’s disappointing to see media outlets blindly covering Runkel’s new firm without mentioning this sordid history. Looking at his two partners, I cannot say I am that surprised to see the head of the Vegan Woman’s Summit named as one of them. I wrote about her lack of integrity recently in relation to Miyoko Schinner.

That the new investment firm is positioned as “the industry's only LGBTQ-and woman-led firm,” makes it all the more hypocritical. These are not labels to hide behind. How you behave matters far more than your gender and sexual orientation.

And anybody associated with this new fund should be asking hard questions.