HAA Vice President Resigns Amid Sexting Scandal in U.K.

Brooks P. Newmark ’80, the first vice president of the Harvard Alumni Association and the frontrunner for next year’s presidency, has resigned from his position amid an ongoing sexting scandal in the U.K., where he is a member of Parliament.

Newmark, who also holds a degree from Harvard Business School and spent much of his career in finance, tendered his HAA resignation earlier this month.

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“After his many years of dedicated service to the University, we sadly accepted Mr. Newmark’s recent decision to resign from the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors,” Philip W. Lovejoy, executive director of the Harvard Alumni Association, wrote in an email to The Crimson on Tuesday.

HAA’s Board of Directors will vote in February to fill the spot vacated by Newmark.

Newmark, 56, could not be reached for comment. A request for comment from Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Tamara E. Rogers ’74 was not returned.

A conservative representing Braintree, England, and a member of the Cabinet, Newmark allegedly sent sexually explicit images over social media to a woman named Sophie Wittams, a supposed Tory PR worker, in September. Wittams, though, was actually a virtual character created by Alex Wickham, a contributing writer to UK’s Sunday Mirror newspaper who was investigating whether MPs were using social media to meet women. Wickham contacted other MPs through the fake account in addition to Newmark.

Newmark announced in late September that he would resign from his Cabinet position as Minister for Civil Society following the allegations and pledged not to run for reelection to Parliament in 2015.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation, a British regulator of publications, is looking into how the sting operation on MPs was conducted and whether Wickham entrapped Newmark.

In October, after further allegations of sexting with another female emerged, Newmark wrote to the British tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail, “I have traumatised my family and let down my constituents and my colleagues.”

“Many will regard me as a failure,” Newmark went on to write. “And it is true: behind the outward facade of success and achievement, I have been battling demons—and losing to them. I craved adrenaline and risk. Stress at work drove me to increasingly erratic behaviour. My friends warned me that I was cracking up. I ignored them.”

Newmark, who had two sons graduate from the College, added that he would begin seeking help for depression.

Several members of the Harvard Club of UK, of which Newmark is a member, declined to comment on the allegations and the impact they may have on the club. An HAA event scheduled for Oct. 17 at Parliament was postponed indefinitely.

—Staff writer Theodore R. Delwiche can be reached at theodore.delwiche@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @trdelwic.