Mary Margaret O’Hara, chief human resources officer for Blue Shield of California, testified this month that the firm fired Aaron Kaufman for questionable spending and for violating the code of conduct related to a company event where the photo was shot.
“Mr. Kaufman was not terminated for who he was dating,” O’Hara said. Kaufman alleged that he was fired as retaliation for exposing possible kickbacks that his boss was getting from a vendor. But O’Hara denied this and testified that Kaufman damaged the firm’s reputation for being tied to an event where the Reid photo was taken at a Lucky Strike Lanes in San Francisco in 2015.
Kaufman did not appear in the photo nor was the firm mentioned, but he set up a team-building company event at Lucky Strikes and was deemed responsible for what took place, O’Hara said. “We felt that he (Kaufman) was not a good role model,” O’Hara said.