Some shareholders would like a CEO to do whatever he or she can get away with to the benefit of the company.

That guy was infamously the most loathed man in America and was specifically known as a pharma bro in the worst way. Any business he was associated with, one already knows was shady and amoral as possible.

Pulling out The Pharma bro as an example is completely irrelevant to any even half respectable business. If we’re talking about pay day loan industry or MLM companies, sure maybe.

Actually, setting aside personal morality entirely, something that looks quite a bit like "character, integrity and honesty" still matters.

It's trust. Trust is a very useful lubricant and accelerant for any kind of relationship, whether business or personal.

Without it, one would have to have the means and spend the time to analyze the potential for duplicity in any given interaction, build mechanisms to enforce agreements, monitor/verify outcomes, and/or retaliate forcefully enough against those that break agreements. You would largely be unable to work with other people or groups. Meanwhile, you'll be easily and massively out-completed by those that can establish trust-based relationships with each other.

This is quite important for a CEO to be effective. If people see a CEO doesn't follow through on his commitments when he feels he can get away with it, they won't trust him or the company he controls, which shrinks the company's opportunities.

Put it the short way: character, integrity and honesty build trust, and trust is a huge advantage. In a competitive landscape, a base level of business ethics is table stakes, and Jensen likely doesn't have that base level. (Note that the three affairs we've heard about all have significant business ethics implications, not simply personal ones.)

"Never hired again" and fired once are different consequences. It's all a spectrum, both for mistakes and their impact on our lives.

People with outsized power should be held to higher--not absolute--standards. Not lower ones because they hold some purse strings.

> Have you tried to apply the same meter to yourself?

This is not a real argument, just a sort of a public admission that you're a cheater and you rationalize it by saying everyone cheats.

I disagree with the original premise, and I don't care if a good CEO is incontinent sexually as long as he does not provide blackmail material (which Huang did) or do it on the job (which he did.) I think you can lie to your wife and not lie to your mom, and vice-versa. But many people have a moral foundation that is more important as a guide to their own behavior than as something they lord over other people. Not everybody is cheating.

Also, "everybody is doing something" is never an excuse.

My first instinct is to tell you that "HN" is not a single monolithic entity; it is thousands of entirely separate individuals, and opinions will vary widely between any one of them.

On the other hand, yes, the capitalistic focus those kinds of people have is indeed disgusting... but remember that you're on a U.S. website filled with people working in the U.S. tech industry. Unfettered capitalism is so deeply ingrained in U.S. culture that it's entirely natural to them to prioritise money and shareholder value.

Not everyone here is so dismissive of such choices.

Some find these errors deeply concerning. There are dozens of us! Dozens!

> without being dishonest in business relationships

It was really the second affair, the one with an employee (a business relationship) that forced the resignation.