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Jeff Zucker’s Son Resigns From Cory Booker Startup Amid Questions About His Qualifications

Aug 8, 2013  •  Post A Comment

CNN President Jeff Zucker’s 15-year-old son isn’t old enough to drive, but he has already been hired and quit a role on the advisory board of Cory Booker’s Internet startup Waywire, reports the New York Post.

Andrew Zucker, 15, abruptly quit his seat on the advisory board after questions arose about his qualifications, the story notes. He had been granted stock options in the video-sharing site started by Booker, the Newark, N.J., mayor who is considered a rising star in the Democratic Party.

“Despite the fact that his affiliation with Waywire was extremely limited to only an advisory capacity, in order to avoid even the perception of a conflict, Jeff’s son has resigned from the Waywire advisory board, effective immediately,” CNN said in a statement.

Critics on Twitter had called out the arrangement, condemning it as a "gross nepotism alert," the story says.

It also raised eyebrows among corporate-governance experts, who said they’d never heard of anyone so young serving on an advisory board, which are usually filled with experienced people who understand how to help a startup get to the next level, the piece adds.

On top of that, the arrangement raised questions about the relationship between Jeff Zucker and Booker, who often is covered by CNN, the article notes. A spokesman for Booker said the mayor wasn’t involved in selecting Andrew Zucker for the position.

"The mayor never met with or talked to Andrew when he advised the company, and wasn’t involved in him joining Waywire,” a spokesman said.

A representative for Waywire said the boy was hired in March after he had "developed a reputation of being able to identify technologies that would be popular with teenagers and which ones wouldn’t be."

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