The Girl Scouts’ Cookie Monster has crumbled.
Anna Maria Chavez, who took the helm of Manhattan-based Girl Scouts of the USA in 2011 and quickly earned the enmity of employees in the Fifth Avenue headquarters, is stepping down.
The organization said last week that Chavez was leaving June 30 to “actively explore a return to public service.” Sylvia Acevedo, a Girl Scouts board member, was named interim CEO.
A Girl Scouts spokesman denied Chavez was fired and said she told the board last month she wanted to leave.
Chavez, 48, ruffled feathers with her brusque management style.
Employees sent anonymous letters to the organization’s board to complain about Chavez, who cut staff at the Manhattan headquarters yet spent $65,000 to renovate the executive bathroom in her 17th-floor office.
Girl Scout camps were forced to close because of a financial crisis with the organization’s pension plan.