http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/m...3dEduMFk1S0JmWGxySExzTWk1RHBvU2IrUjFsTkk9In0=
I did;
I have little idea of how Kenneth Frazier performs his job at Merck, although the fact that he continues to draw an 8 figure salary and bonuses while laying off workers suggests strongly that he does not belong in a leadership position. Henry Ford made it clear long ago that a leader is entitled to high compensation for creating high-wage jobs and reducing prices, not looking for ways to pay his workers as little as possible while charging as much as the market would bear. Ford would have probably not tolerated an executive like Frazier for an instant. I also know the owner of an engineering consulting firm who, when he had to lay people off, cut his own pay to zero at the same time. Even John Surma, the former U.S. Steel CEO who disgraced himself at Penn State, deserves credit for cutting his own pay when he had to lay people off.
More to the point is, however, Mr. Frazier's performance as a Trustee at Penn State; performance which helped destroy the University's reputation while costing it more than sixty million dollars of the stakeholders' (students, parents, and Pennsylvania taxpayers') money. This performance included panic and a rush to judgment during the Jerry Sansuky crisis followed by failure to challenge the NCAA sanctions ($60 million) and also failure to review the Freeh Report for its numerous defects and less than accurate content.
Frazier was a party, along with other Trustees such as BNY Mellon's Karen Peetz, to a dishonest (as admitted later by Frazier during a court deposition) statement to the effect that the Board fired Coach Joe Paterno for "failure of leadership" during the Jerry Sandusky crisis even though Paterno had followed the University's procedures (and Pennsylvania law) for handling allegations of sexual abuse or harassment to the letter.
Frazier and fellow Trustee Keith Masser later admitted in a deposition that the Board had fired Paterno for public relations reasons rather than anything he had or had not done, which means they not only scapegoated and defamed (had he still been alive) a subordinate; they also lied about it. The U.S. Military Academy will quickly wash out any cadet for lying (and scapegoating a peer or subordinate would probably qualify as such) or tolerating those who do (which would include being a party to a "unanimous" statement such as the one the Board made about Paterno in March 2012). Somebody who behaves in this manner cannot, obviously, command the trust, respect, or confidence of any stakeholder, peer, or subordinate.
Frazier also used a racial slur ("people that look like you who think the O.J. Simpson verdict was correct") during a public Board meeting when an alumnus, Bill Cluck, challenged the Board's treatment of Paterno. I voted my Merck shares against Mr. Frazier as a result, and will do the same this year.
Mr. Frazier is also being cited, along with some fellow Trustees, in former Penn State President Graham Spanier's lawsuit against the University for defamation and breach of his separation contract. The cause involves remarks that Mr. Frazier, along with Karen Peetz and others, made in public about Dr. Spanier. Most supervisors know better than to make negative public remarks about employees or former employees, just as most employees know better than to badmouth former employers.
I did;
I have little idea of how Kenneth Frazier performs his job at Merck, although the fact that he continues to draw an 8 figure salary and bonuses while laying off workers suggests strongly that he does not belong in a leadership position. Henry Ford made it clear long ago that a leader is entitled to high compensation for creating high-wage jobs and reducing prices, not looking for ways to pay his workers as little as possible while charging as much as the market would bear. Ford would have probably not tolerated an executive like Frazier for an instant. I also know the owner of an engineering consulting firm who, when he had to lay people off, cut his own pay to zero at the same time. Even John Surma, the former U.S. Steel CEO who disgraced himself at Penn State, deserves credit for cutting his own pay when he had to lay people off.
More to the point is, however, Mr. Frazier's performance as a Trustee at Penn State; performance which helped destroy the University's reputation while costing it more than sixty million dollars of the stakeholders' (students, parents, and Pennsylvania taxpayers') money. This performance included panic and a rush to judgment during the Jerry Sansuky crisis followed by failure to challenge the NCAA sanctions ($60 million) and also failure to review the Freeh Report for its numerous defects and less than accurate content.
Frazier was a party, along with other Trustees such as BNY Mellon's Karen Peetz, to a dishonest (as admitted later by Frazier during a court deposition) statement to the effect that the Board fired Coach Joe Paterno for "failure of leadership" during the Jerry Sandusky crisis even though Paterno had followed the University's procedures (and Pennsylvania law) for handling allegations of sexual abuse or harassment to the letter.
Frazier and fellow Trustee Keith Masser later admitted in a deposition that the Board had fired Paterno for public relations reasons rather than anything he had or had not done, which means they not only scapegoated and defamed (had he still been alive) a subordinate; they also lied about it. The U.S. Military Academy will quickly wash out any cadet for lying (and scapegoating a peer or subordinate would probably qualify as such) or tolerating those who do (which would include being a party to a "unanimous" statement such as the one the Board made about Paterno in March 2012). Somebody who behaves in this manner cannot, obviously, command the trust, respect, or confidence of any stakeholder, peer, or subordinate.
Frazier also used a racial slur ("people that look like you who think the O.J. Simpson verdict was correct") during a public Board meeting when an alumnus, Bill Cluck, challenged the Board's treatment of Paterno. I voted my Merck shares against Mr. Frazier as a result, and will do the same this year.
Mr. Frazier is also being cited, along with some fellow Trustees, in former Penn State President Graham Spanier's lawsuit against the University for defamation and breach of his separation contract. The cause involves remarks that Mr. Frazier, along with Karen Peetz and others, made in public about Dr. Spanier. Most supervisors know better than to make negative public remarks about employees or former employees, just as most employees know better than to badmouth former employers.
