A month before Cavallo was hired, the company’s CCO Joe Alexander was put on leave and then let go. When it was announced on December 1st, 2017, he was leaving — without a word as to why — angered employees leaked details to the industry trade publication AdWeek, which soon after published an investigation detailing years of sexual harassment allegations against Alexander as the reason he was let go. (At the time, Alexander denied wrongdoing, and said the choice to leave Martin was his.) The piece included two former employees who spoke on the record, saying they went to managers about Alexander at various points to no avail. Most damning though was a 2013 settlement between the agency and an unnamed woman. The same day the investigation published, Adweek obtained an internal memo from Martin’s then-CEO Matt Williams that apologized to employees and clarified: “The behavior that Martin’s former CCO, Joe Alexander, is accused of is inexcusable. That’s why the only alternative was for him to leave The Martin Agency. That decision was ours.”