Mark Hirschhorn, executive vice president, COO and CFO of Teladoc Health, is resigning, effective Jan. 1.
"While this was a difficult decision, it's the right one for my family and the company. It has been an enormous privilege to play a role in transforming how people access healthcare around the world, and I know the talented team at Teladoc Health is well positioned to continue advancing this important mission," said Mr. Hirschhorn in a prepared statement.
The decision to resign comes on the heels of a class-action lawsuit Teladoc Health shareholders filed last week against the company. The suit alleges Mr. Hirschhorn was involved in an inappropriate relationship with an employee and engaged in insider trading, helping the employee trade shares based on his insider knowledge. It alleges Teladoc misled shareholders by not disclosing the relationship or the alleged insider trading.
"We deny the allegations contained in the lawsuit and reject any claim that we made materially false or misleading statements regarding our business, operations and compliance policies. When we were made aware of the allegations against Mark Hirschhorn in 2016, we engaged an outside law firm to investigate the claims. The investigation found no evidence of securities law or any other legal violations. We will respond to these claims through the legal process," an emailed statement from the company reads.
The misconduct claims were brought to light by a report published by the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation. The report alleged that Mr. Hirschhorn and the employee engaged in a two-year affair, during which time the employee received several promotions. In a statement released the same day as the report, Teladoc Health stated the report contained "several factual inaccuracies."
Teladoc Health President Peter McClennen will serve as interim COO, while Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer and Controller Gabriel Cappucci will oversee finance activity until permanent replacements are identified.
Editor's note: The article mistakenly stated that Teladoc Health had initially refuted the claims of an inappropriate relationship. The article was corrected and updated on Dec. 18 at 11:30 a.m. to include a company statement regarding the lawsuit.