Trevor Project CEO Under Fire for Past Work for Opioid Manufacturer
the Trevor Project, which assists LGBTQ+ youth in crisis, is facing calls for his resignation after revelations about his work as a consultant to a manufacturer of opioid drugs.Before assuming his current position in 2017, Paley was an associate partner at McKinsey & Co., a global consulting firm.
One of the McKinsey clients he worked with was Purdue Pharma, maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin (generic name oxycodone), which is highly addictive.“Paley worked on projects with the goal of increasing opioid sales and helping to boost Purdue Pharma’s brand — even after the devastating effects of the opioid crisis, with Purdue as a key player, had become clear,” Teen Vogue reports.
His work with Purdue was also detailed in a recent HuffPost article.Accounts vary as to how extensive Paley’s involvement with Purdue was, but several staffers who spoke to Teen Vogue characterized him as hypocritical for working for a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization after having helped promote a drug associated with high risks of overdose and suicide.“The first thing you learn in suicide prevention is removing the means, and he was out there pushing the means,” a Trevor Project employee told Teen Vogue under condition of anonymity.
The magazine interviewed about a dozen staffers, and most of them said Paley should resign. Some had other issues with his management as well, saying a focus on growth had diminished the quality of services the group provides to clients.After the HuffPost article was published, Paley sent an email to Trevor Project staff that was shared with Teen Vogue. “If I knew then what I know now, I would not have agreed to do any consulting work for [Purdue] and I regret that I did,” he wrote.
