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// CRISIS PLAYBOOK · 05
Scenario · Key-person sudden departure Activation · Hotline trigger description · NorthPoint crisis playbook 05: Key-person sudden departure. Pre-loaded comms templates and decision trees.

05 — Key-Person Event

Trigger: Sudden departure, illness, scandal, arrest, indictment, or death involving a founder, C-level executive, or other person whose name is materially associated with your brand or operations.

First 30 minutes

Key-person events are dual crises: an operational continuity issue and a brand-perception issue, simultaneously. Treat both, in that order.

  1. Confirm the facts. Sounds obvious; key-person events have the highest false-alarm rate (rumor, misidentified person, unconfirmed reports).
  2. Open the hotline. “Key-person event: [name], [type — departure / arrest / death / scandal / illness]. Confirmed: [yes/no]. Severity: [1-5].”
  3. Stand up succession / continuity. Who is signing what authority? Who is the public face going forward, even temporarily? Who is talking to engineering / customers / regulators in the gap? This is operational, not communications — but it has to happen before any communications.
  4. Notify counsel. Personal scandals, arrests, and indictments have direct legal implications for the entity. Departures and deaths have governance and HR implications.
  5. Convene the war room. Smaller than typical: CEO/COO, board chair, counsel, head of comms, head of HR. Tightly held until external comms decided.
  6. Sequence the comms. Internal first, board second, regulator (if licensed) third, customers fourth, public fifth. Skipping steps produces irreversible errors.
  7. Prepare the holding statement. Even if you decide not to publish for hours, drafting now ensures you can act fast when the leak happens. Key-person events leak.
  8. Lock down information distribution. Especially: who has access to the internal Slack thread, who knows about the war room, who is on the board call. Leaks happen here.

Holding statement template — neutral departure

For voluntary departures, retirements, or amicable transitions:

[TIMESTAMP — UTC]
      
      [NAME] is [DEPARTING / TRANSITIONING FROM / STEPPING DOWN AS] [ROLE] at [COMPANY].
      [NAME OF SUCCESSOR / INTERIM] will assume the role effective [DATE].
      
      [BRIEF, FACTUAL STATEMENT OF CONTINUITY — e.g., "All [PRODUCT / OPERATIONS / TEAMS] continue
      under the existing organisational structure" or "[NAME] will remain available to support
      the transition through [DATE]"].
      
      [BRIEF, PROFESSIONAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF DEPARTING PERSON'S CONTRIBUTION — one sentence,
      factual, not effusive].
      
      — [Company / Board]

Holding statement template — adverse event (scandal, arrest, indictment)

[TIMESTAMP — UTC]
      
      [COMPANY] is aware of [PUBLIC REPORTS / NEWS] regarding [NAME], [ROLE].
      
      [NAME] has [STEPPED ASIDE / TAKEN A LEAVE OF ABSENCE / BEEN PLACED ON LEAVE], effective
      [DATE]. [NAME OF INTERIM LEADER] has assumed [ROLE] in the interim.
      
      [COMPANY OPERATIONS / USER FUNDS / REGULATORY POSTURE] are not affected. [BRIEF FACTUAL
      STATEMENT OF CONTINUITY].
      
      We will not comment on personal or legal matters [INVOLVING NAME / OUTSIDE THE COMPANY'S
      OPERATIONS].
      
      — [Company / Board]

What both templates deliberately don’t say: - Detailed personal information about the departing individual. - Extended praise (for amicable departures) — reads as defensive in adverse cases and emotional in normal cases. - Speculation about cause (especially for adverse events). - Promises about future direction without board confirmation. - Anything that could later contradict legal proceedings.

Stakeholder cascade

# Audience Channel Who Goal
1 Internal team — all-hands Live all-hands or Slack-wide CEO or board chair Unified picture; pre-empt rumor cycle internally
2 Board (if not already informed) Phone briefing Board chair or CEO Governance alignment
3 Major investors 1:1 calls CEO or board chair Preserve confidence
4 Major customers / partners (if departing person was relationship-led) 1:1 calls New relationship lead Preserve continuity
5 Regulator (if licensed entity and individual was a registered/named officer) Per protocol Compliance + counsel Required notification
6 Public — announcement X + blog Comms lead with counsel Set the narrative before press does
7 Press Coordinated, not reactive Comms lead with counsel Direct quote, single message
8 Community Discord / Telegram Community lead Detail beyond the public statement

Do

  • Be factual and brief. Key-person events demand restraint. Less is more.
  • Confirm continuity in operational terms. “User funds remain unaffected” or “All product operations continue” is the line that matters.
  • Get the new person on camera or in a written piece quickly. Successor visibility is the trust signal that closes the loop.
  • Coordinate with the departing person’s representation if possible. A departure where both sides agree on the public framing is dramatically less damaging than one where they don’t.
  • Thank them once, factually, in adverse cases. Even when relations are bad, professional acknowledgment shields the brand from looking petty.

Don’t

  • Don’t speculate on personal matters. Especially in adverse cases — anything you say about an individual’s situation outside the company can become a defamation issue.
  • Don’t issue effusive personal statements (“a tremendous loss for us all”) in any case where the departure is adversarial. It looks performative.
  • Don’t disclose more than legally required. Internal HR detail does not belong in public statements.
  • Don’t wait for the leak to publish. Once a key-person event is internally known, leak window is hours. Get ahead.
  • Don’t let the founder issue a personal counter-statement without comms and counsel review, especially in adverse cases.

Variants

Health event / death. Different tone entirely — sincerity over precision. Coordinate with family before any public statement. Operational continuity statement comes after the human acknowledgment.

Founder removal by board. Particularly fraught. Board controls messaging; founder’s personal account often goes off-script. Pre-arrange messaging in the board resolution if possible.

Departure to a competitor or new venture. Standard departure plus pre-empting speculation about the new venture. Don’t disparage the departure direction.

Indictment without conviction. Statement reflects presumption of innocence — “placed on leave pending the resolution of the matter”, not language presuming guilt or innocence. Coordinate carefully with the individual’s counsel.

The departing individual posts publicly first. When the founder/CEO posts a personal departure tweet before the company does, the company statement has to acknowledge but not contradict. Follow with a statement that lands the operational continuity message.

24-hour follow-up

  • Internal Q&A session for all-hands within 48 hours. Real questions, real answers — within bounds counsel approves.
  • Confirm any registered-officer changes are filed with regulators per timeline.
  • Update the website, press kit, founder bio pages, “about” pages — everything with the departed individual’s name.
  • Update authorisations: signing authority, payment approvals, key access, AWS/Google admin, social-media admins. Do not delay this — operational risk during transitions is high.
  • Plan the longer-term narrative: how does the company describe its forward direction in the new structure? Don’t ship this in week one; do plan for it in week two.

Cross-references: 09 — Founder Doxxing. Coordinate with HR and counsel; this is the crisis type where these functions matter most.