EY death: Australian CEO David Larocca is trolled on LinkedIn over Aishwarya Venkatachalam suicide

The Australian CEO of accounting giant Ernst and Young has been trolled on LinkedIn over the suicide death of a senior auditor after he refused to say her name in a conference call with staff.

David Larocca has come under fire over the Big Four firm’s reaction to Aishwarya Venkatachalam, 27, falling to her death from the 11th floor of the company’s Sydney headquarters. 

A recent town hall speech by Mr Larocca to his 9,000 staff was slammed by some workers for not even mentioning Ms Venkatachalam’s name when discussing the fatal incident. 

Insiders claimed part of the reason the company was reluctant to use her name was because she went by Venkat, an abbreviated version of her surname, at work. 

Mr Larocca had insisted the company was ‘working to maintain space and privacy for Ms Venkatachalam’s family’ – reasoning that did not pass muster with some staff, who complained to Daily Mail Australia.

Now he has been pursued on executive networking site LinkedIn – with a recent online comment by Mr Larocco about a fellow executive’s selfie skills copping a damning three word reply: ‘Say her name’. 

The CEO did not reply to the trolling, but the the company issuing a lengthy letter about Ms Venkatachalam and the safety of its CBD headquarters when approached by Daily Mail Australia on Thursday night. 

There is no suggestion EY – as Ernst and Young is now called – or Ms Venkatachalam’s co-workers or her superiors were in any way responsible for her death.

‘This has been an incredibly difficult time for the family, friends and colleagues of our audit colleague Aishwarya Venkatachalam, following her tragic death late last month. It has shocked and saddened all of us at EY,’ the statement said.

‘Since the tragic event, we have been consulting with independent experts specialising in workplace culture, healthy work practices and psychological safety to shape the framework for a rigorous and wide-ranging review of EY Australia. 

‘We will shortly be announcing details of the firm engaged to undertake this review. We are fully committed to transparency with the findings and implementation of the review recommendations.’

Ms Venkatachalam was at a work drinks function at Sydney’s The Ivy nightclub on August 26 before she later returned to her George St office in the CBD and fell to her death. 

The incident sparked a furious backlash against EY’s pressure-packed work culture. 

It also raised accusations of racism and bullying among staff, which Ms Venakatachalam had alleged to friends she had faced.

But Mr Larocca’s recent hour-long address to workers spent just four minutes on her death, infuriating many who branded it ‘entitled’, ‘indulgent’ and displaying a ‘tin ear’ to the trauma suffered by staff.

The anger increased when he took to LinkedIn to comment on a fellow executive’s picture of himself at a conference, telling him he ‘needs to work on his selfie skills’. 

‘EY’s CEO commenting on LinkedIn a week ago to an unrelated public post only days after one of his employees ended her life,’ one worker fumed to Daily Mail Australia.

A poster calling himself Patrick Chaperon, general manager of ‘Victorian Lub Pty Ltd’ then posted the ‘Say her name’ comment. 

Others have also relived their grim experiences at EY after Daily Mail Australia revealed how Ms Venkatachalam spoke to Good Samaritans who tried to help her just 30 minutes before she died.

They found her sobbing uncontrollably in a city centre car park where she told them ‘everyone was so mean to her in her office and that white people are not nice and are mean people and racist.’ 

It echoed similar comments she had earlier made to her friend Neeti Bisht in April that ‘mean colleagues’ had been making her new life in Sydney a misery.

She told the three women she met in the car park that her house key was in her office but she couldn’t get into the building to collect it and had nowhere else to go. 

Her newlywed husband Nakul Mulari, whom she married in a spectacular three-day Tamil-Brahman ceremony in January 2021, was on a flight home from Singapore to Sydney at the time of her death.

Other bystanders helped her back to her office around midnight, but 20 minutes later she plummeted to her death onto the glass and wood awning over the building’s front entrance.

Now others have taken to social media to reveal the racism they say they also faced at the firm.

‘This is so EY Sydney,’ posted one person claiming to be a former EY employee. ‘Having experienced working at EY Sydney, I can totally understand this poor woman’s state of mental health.

‘Those days with EY Sydney were just so miserable. One day, I literally broke down cause of unfairness and burnt out and cried so much at home. 

‘Luckily I have my family and friends to support me along.’

They added: ‘The partners in that team tend to treat Asian workers like a dog as they expect those workers can always work hard and can deliver more. 

‘However, this doesn’t mean that these people can get rewarded in the end and on the contrary, they tend to promote suckers and incapable people.

‘One of the partners at EY Sydney always hires random people he meets in a restaurant or club. And he doesn’t allow any managers above to say any constructive feedback at round table for those special people he has hired. 

‘If you do so, you will be in big trouble and you will be blacklisted. It is just so shocking how the practice can be allowed to run like this. 

‘The top management at EY Sydney should really take some action towards this toxic culture. Isn’t the EY slogan to build a better working world?’

The tragedy has also caused anger among the Indian community, with some dismayed that Ms Venkatachalam felt she had no support from local compatriots.

Management consultant Sri Annaswamy has lived in Australia for 30 years but said it was ‘disgusting and disappointing’ that he couldn’t find anyone who knew her or her family, ‘including senior people at her own firm here in Sydney,’ he said.

‘This state of apathy in our Indian-Australian community is remarkable,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.

‘Thanks for at least breaking this heartrending story, I’m very grateful otherwise we would not have known about this at all. Yes, WE failed Aishwarya…no question. 

‘How is it even possible that despite becoming a part of our Indian-Australian community for almost a year, she felt that she didn’t have anybody that she could confide in, trust and stay with (even till her husband’s flight landed!!)? 

‘Community uncles, aunties, friends, Indian work colleagues – no-one.’

In a post to LinkedIn, he added: ‘A full week has passed since the Daily Mail article [but] not a single Indian-Australian Association President, community bigwig, community stalwart could be bothered even commenting on this

‘Not even condolences to the family or flower wreaths outside the place where she took her tragic end.

‘Even on LinkedIn, this is the only post from Australia referencing the tragic plight and wondering what our community could have done.

‘I can’t even trace them through our own little Tamil-Brahmin community here. clearly our community has become a self-centred and insular lot.’

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ernst and Young for comment.