Former Portland Mayor Sam Adams Has Abruptly Left His Job at a D.C. Think Tank

Former Mayor Sam Adams has abruptly left his job at an environmental think tank in Washington, D.C.

After two years with World Resource Institute, Adams announced his departure last week and was already gone by Friday, World Resource Institute spokesman Michael Oko says.

The sudden departure comes a month after a former aide to the mayor, Cevero Gonzalez, alleged that Adams had sexually harassed him and engaged in other inappropriate behavior. WW first reported the allegation on Nov. 3.

Oko denied that the departure was related to Gonzalez's allegations or to sexual harassment.

"Last week, Sam informed management of his decision to leave WRI,"Oko says in a statement. "Since joining the institute in 2015, he demonstrated global leadership on sustainable cities and played a key leadership role in supporting U.S. climate action. Sam's departure is not due to sexual harassment nor allegations made by Cevero Gonzalez."

Adams strenuously denied his departure had anything to do with sexual harassment.

"It is something I have been thinking about for a while," he says. "It is a neutral inflection point in terms of the work flow."

He forwarded along an email to colleagues:

From: Samuel Adams
Sent: Monday, December 4, 2017 4:24 PM
To: WRI Team.
Subject: Thank You & Moving On!
 
Hi WRI Colleagues.
 
It has been a wonderful whirlwind three-years at World Resources Institute. We created  the WRI United States program, significantly grew it, and recently gained WRI Board's approval of its first five-year country strategy.

Key strategy-implantation projects of the new United States strategy are also underway.  Like the America's Pledge analytical project, led by Gov. Jerry Brown and former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, announced at the Bonn Climate Summit, in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Institute. And the just-started Cities Data Project for the Global Covent of Mayors. Other much-needed climate action equity and urban adaptation protocol projects are in the pipeline.

With these innovations moving forward, and a great US team in place, it is a good inflection point for me to look for new professional change-maker challenges. I will be leaving WRI. I have very much enjoyed working with you. Thank you! And, a special shout-out to my smart and hard working WRI US team.
 
 Stay in touch using the contact information below. I will keep you posted on my new endeavors. Keep up the great and important work. Onward!
 
Sincerely,
 
Sam