Louis G. Spisto – the embattled executive director of the American Ballet Theater – resigned yesterday.
Spisto is fighting charges of sexual harassment and age discrimination and has clashed with several ABT board members over the company’s precarious financial state, ABT sources told The Post yesterday.
“Mr. Spisto’s resignation resulted from a growing difference in vision from many members of the Board of Directors,” ABT board president Ed Fox said in a press release. “Recognizing these differences, Mr. Spisto offered his resignation, and it was accepted.”
Last spring, in a complaint filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and revealed by The Post, Spisto was accused by a former ABT employee of creating a “hostile work environment” where sexual harassment, discrimination and “vulgar actions” were allowed to run rampant.
Spisto, the complaint alleged, set out to purge the ballet company of older employees and replace them with young gay men.
Spisto denied the charges at the time.
Since Spisto took over ABT in 1999, nearly 30 employees have fled the company.
ABT’s cash reserves have dropped by half, and an expensive new production of “Sleeping Beauty” was canceled due to lack of funds.
Some board members also questioned Spisto’s frequent use of expense accounts to cover meals in fancy New York restaurants.
ABT sources say Spisto’s days were numbered when, over the last month, five board members either resigned or threatened to resign unless Spisto was forced out.
“It became pretty clear that he had to go or we’d lose most of our board,” one ABT employee said yesterday.