As reported by the Wall Street Journal (opens in new tab), Francis Townsend, Activision Blizzard's chief compliance officer, has stepped down. He is no longer an employee of the company, but will continue to serve on its board of directors in an advisory capacity.

The move comes as Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of the company is slowly on its way to completion, though not without regulatory hurdles such as a recent objection (opens in new tab) from the UK watchdog.

Townsend was a controversial figure even before he joined Activision Blizzard, serving as assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism under George W. Bush during the invasion of Iraq in the early 2000s.

The Washington Post (open in new tab) reported in 2004 that Townsend toured the notorious Abu Ghraib prison during the torture of prisoners by U.S. forces (open in new tab). According to the Post, an officer at the prison told U.S. Army investigators that Townsend, as head of Abu Ghraib's Joint Interrogation and Reporting Center, pressured him to get better information from prisoners. Townsend, for his part, denied witnessing any prisoner abuse during his patrol.

In July 2021, shortly before the Activision-Blizzard controversy (open in new tab) erupted, Townsend sent an email (open in new tab) to employees about the allegations against the company. She wrote that the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing lawsuit "presents a distorted and factually inaccurate picture [of Activision Blizzard].

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has since assumed responsibility for the content of the emails in question. Townsend, however, stepped down from his position as the company's sponsor of the Women's Network and later deleted his Twitter page (opens in new tab) after controversially sharing an article critical of whistleblowers.

According to Bloomberg (opens in new tab), Bobby Kotick wrote in an email that Townsend "did a really great job" during his tenure; according to the WSJ, Townsend's former positions of ethics and compliance officer and corporate secretary are, taken over by Vice Presidents Jen Brewer and Luci Altman, respectively.