Tallis Gomes (Photo: G4 Edition)
A G4 Educationwhich offers courses for entrepreneurs, announced on Saturday night (21) that the executive Tallis Gomes resigned as CEO and chairman of the company's board. He was one of the founders of G4.
The announcement comes after the negative repercussions in recent days, in the business world, of a sexist statement made by Gomes on his social networks.
G4 also announced that a woman will take over as CEO. The position will be filled by Maria Isabel Antonini, partner and current CFO of the company.
“G4 reaffirms its commitment to impactful executive education, in which female leadership has always been a leading player,” the company’s announcement said. G4 also reported that Antonini has over 20 years of experience in business leadership and management and is the former CEO of Singu, a company that was also founded by Gomes.
Gomes also published the resignation on his Instagram account and said he had listened carefully to the comments and criticisms he had received in recent days.
“The company is bigger than any of us and will continue its great mission of helping to generate jobs in our country through entrepreneurship,” wrote Gomes.
“Thank you very much for all the support I have received and also for the criticism. I only got to where I am because of the falls I have taken in life, from which I have learned. This will be another one of those learning experiences,” he said.
He also wrote that he had expressed himself in an “unacceptable way about the role of women.” “Unjustifiable,” he said Saturday night.
Expulsion of Tallis Gomes from Hope
Earlier, women's fashion brand Hope announced that it had decided to expel him from the company's advisory board. The decision came after the company's heiress and managing partner, Sandra Chayo, came out in defense of the businessman on her social media, which generated a negative repercussion.
“We believe that this is a time when he needs to reflect on the importance of female leadership and how this evolution brings gains and benefits to the entire society, which will not go backwards,” said Chayo in the new positioning this Saturday.
Sexist speech
The comment posted on Instagram by Gomes, in which he said “God save me from a female CEO,” sparked a series of posts on social media, especially on LinkedIn, by female executives who criticized the statement and reinforced their pride in being female leaders.
After the first post, when the topic had resonated in WhatsApp groups that include lawyers and women from the business sector, Gomes made a new post, in which he apologized for the “mistake” and said he had been “unfortunate in saying what type of woman I would like for my life”.
Before the retraction, he also received comments on social media from female former G4 students who said they regretted having paid for the company's courses.
Criticism of Gomes in recent days has been made by names such as the president of Banco do Brasil, Tarciana Medeiros; businesswoman Luiza Helena Trajano, from Magazine Luisa; Gabriela Onofre, from the Publicis group; influencer Nathália Rodrigues, from the Nath Finanças channel; Carol Paiffer, from the Atom group, among other women who lead large companies.
On Wednesday (18), when answering questions from followers on social media, Gomes said that women who are CEOs of companies do not make “better use of feminine energy”.
He had written that “with rare exceptions, this woman (CEO) will go through a process of masculinization that will put my home in fourth place, me in third place and my children in second place”.
He also said that positions like his require the CEO to be “too tough to handle” and that “the world started to fall apart exactly when the feminist movement started forcing women to play the role of men” and that women should use “the feminine energy in the right places, home and family”.
The next day, when the topic had already had negative repercussions, he said: “At no point in my text did I want to question the ability of a woman to be a CEO, I said solely and exclusively, with the wrong words and the wrong tone, who I would like by my side as my wife,” he said, in the retraction.
He continues, in the post after the repercussion: “My words do not represent what G4 is as a company. We are proud to deserve the trust of many successful female executives. My most sincere apologies for causing this discomfort to all of you. Women's place is wherever they want to be.”
The retraction, however, was not enough to contain the negative repercussions.
Who is Tallis Gomes?
Tallis Gomes gained prominence in the business world in 2011. At the time, at the age of 25, when ride-hailing was a novelty in the country, he created Easy Taxi. In 2016, he created the Singu platform, defined as the “Uber of beauty”, offering hairdressing, waxing and manicure services at home.
Easy Taxi merged with Spanish ride-hailing app Cabify, which later closed its doors in Brazil. Singu received investment from Natura. Gomes was even featured on the Forbes Under 30 list. Gomes calls himself a “management expert.” Along with other names in the field, he founded G4 in 2019, a business school that claims to offer mentoring on sales, management, marketing, and artificial intelligence for entrepreneurs, founders, and managers.
This is not the first time his statements have gained repercussion. Earlier this year, in a podcast, he stated that he does not hire “leftists” and that his employees work “80 hours a week.”