Noel Biderman founded Ashley Madison in 2002. (Photo : Bobby Yip/Reuters)
Ashley Madison's founder and CEO Noel Biderman announced his resignation on Aug. 28, Friday, following the hacking incident in the adultery website.
A statement released by Ashley Madison's Canadian parent company, Avid Life Media Inc. (ALM), said that Biderman's departure was a joint decision and was for "the best interest of the company." It added that the current senior management team will lead the company until Biderman's replacement is appointed.
According to the statement, Ashley Madison will continue to provide support to both its members and employees. It added that the company is actively working with international law enforcement in order to bring to justice the ones responsible for the massive hack.
However, the statement did not specify the reason for Biderman's sudden resignation. Yet it came days following reports of leaked emails that allegedly revealed the Ashley Madison founder's own extra-marital affairs.
The leaked emails were part of the massive data breach performed by a group called Impact Team, which initially targeted the site's spouse-cheating clients. On Aug. 18, the hackers started dumping stolen data from the site, including thousands of U.S. government email addresses and those linked to famous TV personalities.
The Ashley Madison founder was among the latest to have been caught up in the hacking scandal. According to BuzzFeed, hundreds of Biderman's leaked emails suggest that he has strayed from his marriage multiple times, despite claiming in the past that he had never cheated on his wife.
Among the hundreds of emails that Biderman purportedly sent to and received from multiple women include those with a Toronto-based escort and a student. Many emails involved details on the place and time of their arrangement, BuzzFeed reported.
After the Ashley Madison hacking incident, Avid Life announced it would give 500,000 Canadian dollars as reward to anyone who could give information about the hackers. As of this writing, Biderman has yet to give an official statement on his alleged leaked emails and extra-marital affairs.
