Chamber Exec Moved Quickly to Reshape Battered Organization

Nine months after the Silicon Valley Organization imploded after publishing a racist political attack ad, the dust is starting to settle.

Matt Mahood, former CEO, landed a job as economic development director for fast moving Morgan Hill, and Eddie Truong, former-director of government and community relations, is a contract lobbyist. Madison Nguyen, former-EVP, is fielding executive recruiter calls but in no hurry after a jungle vacay.

The report commissioned to internally “investigate” hasn’t been released, citing attorney-client privilege, but reportedly found “no intent to do harm.” Despite apologies, no one has taken personal responsibility for the post—which asked “Do you really want to sign on to this?” above a photo of Black men in a cloud of smoke. The “web administrator,” Fly has learned, is a junior SVO employee who managed to keep their job, while three higher levels on the org chart were asked to clear out their desks.

Truong admits the staffer emailed him and consultant Storefront Media about the photo ahead of time, but he didn’t open his inbox until hours later. While denying responsibility for the post, Truong chalks up the SVO’s epic mistake to poor communication and is moving forward, which he’s framed as “striking out on his own,” a narrative posted to a nonprofit news site on which he’s an advisor.

Truth is, however, both Truong and Nguyen’s positions were eliminated June 4, according to an internal memorandum from now-President and CEO Derrick Seaver obtained by the Fly. Deemed part of “organizational changes,” the positions became redundant after the SVO shut its PAC.

Seaver says the organization may get involved in future policy ballot measures, but its days of supporting or opposing office seekers are over as he refocuses on serving small and medium sized businesses.

The Fly is the valley’s longest running political column, written by Metro Silicon Valley staff, to provide a behind-the-scenes look at local politics. Fly accepts anonymous tips.

8 Comments

  1. careful of these soi-boi ceos

    they feign and claim beta but have so much built-up otherworldly resentment levels they can do more damage in a month than a chad man would in a life time

  2. Wow Not Him! There’s so much jargon there that’s uninterpretable by less than hip shut ins like me.
    Can’t say I necessarily disagree with you but THAT comment is in serious need of unpacking.

  3. HIM: And if they get power in a bureaucracy, beware. 1930s-1940s Germany was legendary for bad examples..

  4. Mr Galt

    Soi bois are these duplicitous little males who self medicate estrogen to Jonesian levels. Chads are the boyfriend your daughter brings home that you are instinctively concerned with but end up understanding and accept after you realize how well his God-fearing parents raised him.

  5. I can’t believe “The Fly” has nothing better to write about than this old story. The SVO already recognized the internal communication mistakes they made, pushed out the politicians out of the SVO, killed the PAC and re-focus on helping small-medium businesses. Those changes sounds great like great work “The Fly”.

    Why you keep mentioning the junior web administrator? Do you actually think that this person was driving the political agenda at SVO? It is obvious who was behind it.

  6. It will be nice to see SVO focus their energies on small and medium businesses… that aspect has been lacking in recent years. Hopefully SVO realizes that people of color own businesses in San Jose and the organization can’t do racist business as usual any more.

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