Women’s groups: Jeff Shell’s Skydance job ‘sends wrong message’

The appointment of Jeff Shell as president of Paramount Global this month, once the merger with Skydance is completed, represents a significant comeback for the former NBCUniversal CEO, who was fired just a year ago for sexual harassment.

He is the first major media star to be brought back into the company after a potentially career-ending scandal. His hiring not only set off alarm bells among women’s rights activists, who also warned that Paramount would face legal risks if Shell again overstepped its boundaries in the workplace.

Nicole Regalado, vice president of campaigns at the feminist nonprofit UltraViolet, says Shell’s hiring after his firing for high-profile reasons sends “the wrong message to women.”