'Billionaire' Burning Man board member resigns

A board member of the non-profit organization that runs Burning Man resigned Thursday, two months after he was the subject of a critical article in Bloomberg about the growing influence of extreme wealth at the annual event in the Black Rock Desert.

Jim Tananbaum, who joined the Burning Man Project Board of Directors in April last year, was featured in a February article by Felix Gillette called The Billionaires at Burning Man. The article detailed Tananbaum's camp at Burning Man — called Caravancicle — where 120 people were invited to pay $16,500 each to spend a week inside a camp that's "like staying at a pop-up W Hotel," according to the article.

The 51-year-old business mogul, who first attended Burning Man in 2009, is the CEO of Foresite Capital. His resignation was announced Thursday in The Jackrabbit Speaks, an email newsletter distributed by Burning Man.

"He was inspired to join the Board after witnessing Burning Man's potential to have a positive impact on the world and has contributed in meaningful ways to the Board," the newsletter said. "Jim intends to continue his generous work supporting the Burning Man community.

"Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell and the remaining members of the Board of Directors extend their gratitude to Jim for his year of service and for all his contributions to the Burning Man Project."

When reached by phone Thursday, Burning Man officials declined further comment.

In a December 2014 letter that he published online, Tananbaum said that he decided to join the board because he was "passionate about the impact Burning Man culture can have on the world," and because he felt his professional experience was valuable to the organization given its new nonprofit status.

While the exact reasons for Tananbaum's resignation were not disclosed Thursday, the criticism that lead to the article in Bloomberg in February had been palpable among Burners for months after Beth Lillie, a woman from Los Angeles, recounted her experience in a September post online about working as a paid "sherpa" inside Tananbaum's camp.

Lillie wrote about Tananbaum's camp where participants were treated like playa royalty. She called the camp a "disaster" in her post and said the participants didn't clean up their trash or respect the people working there.

"Was the camp a success? I don't know," Lillie wrote. "It all depend on who you spoke to I suppose. Maybe the folks who were paid the most would say yes."

Tananbaum responded to Lillie in his letter published in December.

"I believe there is a silver lining in the discussion our camp has engendered because it has caused a healthy dialog about the implications for Burning Man's evolution," Tananbaum wrote. "I am proud to be a Burner. I am proud that my fellow Burners felt passionate enough about the sanctity of Burning Man to push this discussion, and I look forward to taking new ideas and lessons learned into the future."

Tananbaum's departure leaves the board with two vacancies, as only 17 of the 19 board seats are filled. Whether they will fill these seats in the near future remains in question as well.