toodles1628
To me it doesn't seem credible that you as the CEO of a recruiting company didn't realize the issue of "default public" profiles. You literally have a section about confidentiality on the front page of your website so you must have known it was important to users.
His actions and response are consistent with behavior. It sounds much better to say "I didn't think through it" than "I knew it was bad and wanted to try it anyway."
I don't believe that he did not know the impact of the default public option - that is not credible. It certainly sounds better in an apology than "I knew it was bad but decided to try it anyway." The privacy problem is obvious to anyone thinking about it for 10 seconds, and the fact that he would try shows a lack of respect for his users.