Robin Williams put it aptly when he said:
“…God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time.”
In late Jan 2007 Todd Thomson resigned (or if WSJ is to be believed “was fired!”) under suspicious circumstances. The word is that he was fired because of his “lapses in judgment”. And while WSJ had a field day with the expose this is what Michael Lewis at Bloomberg had to say:
“…On Jan. 22, Citigroup issues a press release announcing Thomson's resignation, in which Thomson declares how much he's ``looking forward to exploring new challenges.'' The next day, citing three Citigroup insiders close to the situation, the Wall Street Journal reports that Thomson didn't resign but was fired by Citigroup CEO Charles Prince for ``lapses in judgment,'' including ``the inappropriate use of company aircraft.''
All Maria, All the Time
Three days later the Journal, drawing on what apparently is a direct line into the Citigroup executive suite, conveniently supplies a list of Thomson's indiscretions: flying CNBC journalist Maria Bartiromo to Asia on the Citigroup jet, then bumping Citigroup execs from the return flight so he might fly back alone with her; bankrolling Citigroup functions that feature Maria Bartiromo; using $5 million of his marketing budget to sponsor a TV show on the Sundance Channel hosted by CNBC journalist Maria Bartiromo, and naming Maria Bartiromo to a board he created inside the Wharton Business School.
Thomson also ``installed a wood burning fireplace in his office,'' but my guess is that he would have been forgiven that small romantic gesture if he hadn't made the others. I'll bet, also, that he would have been allowed to waste even more millions of dollars on causes only loosely related to the bottom line, if he had only wasted them less systematically. He was, after all, the boss of Citigroup's fastest-growing business. You don't kill the goose for spending a few of its golden eggs.
Let's Be Clear
Thomson's capital offense, obviously, was to use his status at Citigroup to underwrite his relationship with Maria Bartiromo. The Journal strongly implied but never came out and said that something more than business was going on between Thomson and Bartiromo, no doubt simply reflecting the off-the-record opinion of Citigroup's executive suite. To make its innuendo as clear as possible the Journal pointed out that after a Citigroup executive spotted Thomson dining alone with Bartiromo, Prince warned Thomson about getting too close to her. And I doubt he much cared who paid for the meal.
No, the executive in charge of the fastest-growing business at the world's largest financial company lost his mega-million dollar job for pulling strings to keep his female journalist friend happy. (Or, at least, impressed.) …”
So this Valentines Day before you try and use company time and resources to take that office romance to the next level… just remember the tale of old Todd!
Happy Valentines Day !
