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Calista Denies That CEO Mishandled Sexual Harassment Complaint

The Calista Board of Directors voted to remove Col. Wayne Don of Mekoryuk from his position as Calista Board Chair on March 9, 2018.
Courtesy of Calista Corporation.

The Calista Regional Corporation is denying that its CEO mishandled a sexual harassment complaint. In a press release Friday afternoon, the corporation’s Board of Directors alleged that its ousted chairman, Wayne Don, is deliberately spreading misinformation about the company.

In interviews with KYUK, Don and his attorney said that Calista CEO Andrew Guy failed to properly respond to a sexual harassment complaint against a former employee. But in their statement Friday, the board claims that “the woman never made even one complaint to Mr. Andrew Guy that she had been sexually harassed.”

"The person that was harassed did not approach Andrew Guy," Calista Communications Manager Thom Leonard reiterated in an interview with KYUK on Friday.

The board’s statement was released by its new chairman, Paul George Guy, who happens to be CEO Andrew Guy’s cousin. It further claims that Wayne Don made “incorrect and misleading” statements to both KYUK and the Delta Discovery, and that this violated his “fiduciary duties.”

Friday’s press release is the latest in a series of allegations that Calista has made against Don, who is refusing to resign from the corporation’s board. His fellow board members have already stripped Don of his chairmanship and voted to publicly censure him.

At the center of this dispute is an unnamed, former Calista employee, who is accused of repeatedly sexually harassing a woman. According to Don and his attorney, the woman told CEO Andrew Guy what was happening, but Guy failed to respond to her complaint. This harassment claim eventually made its way to Calista’s Human Resources Department, and Calista investigated and then fired the offending employee.

In their statement Friday, the Board didn't just deny the woman ever told Andrew Guy about sexual harassment. It also cast doubt on whether she was harassed at all. The board says that Calista’s former employee had not, in fact, repeatedly sexually harassed the woman, and that “this highly inflammatory statement is completely false.” However, the press release then says that an attorney who reviewed the allegations concluded that it was "likely” that the employee’s conduct violated Calista’s sexual harassment policies. It further says that the employee was fired as a result of an investigation.

KYUK asked Calista spokesperson Thom Leonard about these apparent contradictions in the corporation's press release. "Yeah, I don’t have any further light I can shed on that," said Leonard.

Attorney Sam Fortier says that Wayne Don tried to address Andrew Guy’s alleged failure to respond to the sexual harassment, but that Calista’s Board of Directors shut him down. He argues that the board is now pushing Don out of the corporation. Calista claims that they publicly censured Don for different reasons. The board's press release states that Don committed at least 14 instances of misconduct while serving as Calista’s chair, though Communications Manager Thom Leonard said that he didn’t know what any of that misconduct actually was. "The specific details on that have not been shared by the board at this time," he said.

In an interview Friday afternoon, Fortier said that he and Don stick by what they said in KYUK’s previous coverage. “Everything we told you is true,” he said, “and we have the evidence to back it up.”

The board also previously claimed that Don had threatened CEO Andrew Guy, interfered with an internal investigation, and improperly issued orders to other employees. But Thom Leonard said that he also didn’t know what those accusations specifically referred to.

Neither CEO Andrew Guy nor the current Calista Board chair, Paul George Guy, could be reached for comment on Friday.

Wayne Don still refuses to resign from Calista’s board and says that the board has called a special meeting. According to Don, it’s taking place on Monday. He won’t be able to make it because he’s attending a national conference in Washington D.C. this week, which has been on his calendar for the past year. To the best of Don and his attorney’s knowledge, the meeting hasn’t been rescheduled so that Don can attend. Spokesperson Thom Leonard says that he is unaware of any special board meetings.