Adonis Hoffman Rejects Board Appointment Due to Tegna's CEO Racial Incident

Media attorney Adonis Hoffman has rescinded his bid to be a board member for the broadcast company Tegna. He cited an incident that occurred in 2014 at an industrial dinner where a current board of Tegna, CEO Dave Louvee mistook him for a valet. According to Attorney Adonis Hoffman, he and CEO Dave Lougee were seated next to each other and had a considerable conversation at that same industrial dinner. But while waiting for his cab, Lougee gave Hoffman his valet ticket under the presumption that he was an employee at the hotel. 

Hoffman was nominated for the position in January and turned it down this month, March during the hiring process when he discovered the job could be seen as a conflict of interest in addition to the situation with Lougee. He said, " I am not offended to have been considered a valet…" "What took me back was him seeing people categorically. It wasn't that he thought I was a valet but just another brown-skinned guy around whom he ascribed to that position." In an SEC filing, Lougee admitted to the incident and apologized to Hoffman. 

The filing was made public by Tegna on Tuesday. Lougee in his statement said, " This unfortunate incident underscores just how important this work is for all of us. Tegna has taken specific actions to ensure our people, content, and company reflects the communities we serve and we have established numerical goals to drive continuous improvement in the years ahead." Lougee in the filing said he apologized to Hoffman. 

But in a session with St. Louis Today Hoffman said, " If he apologized to me at the time, I don't remember it." Tegna has employed the services of a law firm to look into the incident and interview Lougee. The company has also asked its human resources officer to review Lougee's company file.