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Hahaha. Good try but WRONG. I am not Lee Arrowood. I am someone who spent quite bit of time speaking to the new crew that came in May 2016. They have quite a tale to tell. As far as Arrowood, I never even met the guy. The May 2016 crew never interacted with him so would have nothing to say about him.
If you read my posts carefully, you will notice that I never refer to events that happened while Arrowood was there. I never defend him. Why would you think I am him?
Whatever opinion or infatuation you have for Melling, talk to the people who were there in the summer of 2016. They will describe his behavior the same way as I did . He was a liar, telling easily provable falsehoods to potential investors. He had an exaggerated opinion of his expertise, knowing nothing about lithium ion, and he was the Barber's henchman. He helped hurt a lot of people.
Maybe you were there only while he was putting out a good impression and were never in the meetings and business dinners that have been described to me in detail.
Look up the press release of May 2016 that has the names of the new management team. Contact these people on likedin and ask them what they think of Melling. Contact the General and ask him what he thought of Melling and the Barbers.
If you were at Oakridge, you have every right to be pissed off at Lee Arrowood, but to worship Brendan Melling means that you were not present when the most important meetings and events took place in the summer of 2016.
Something good from SEC charges.
Agreed that the investors and employees will not gain anything from the SEC action and it is a shame that this is a civil, rather than criminal case. However there are benefits from this. First, the Barbers are unlikely to ever come back to America and victimize anyone else. They could be barred from ever being officers of a publicly traded company in the USA and could even lose their green cards. Permanent residency , i. e. having a green card, is a temporary status that can be revoked if a person is not of good moral character and engages in illegal behavior.
The second benefit is that the Chinese government in Hong Kong will easily find out about this if they ever do even a basic internet search about Steve Barber. He will be flagged as a crook forever. He may even end up in a Chinese prison one day. Karma is a bitch!
More on Brendan Melling!
I've done some checking on the claims by the poster who calls himself Technology Mogal about he supposed extraordinary job done by Brendan Melling at Oakridge in 2016. This poster has made some serious allegations against Lee Arrowood which led me to investigate further.
There are several allegations made by the poster that don't appear very convincing. First the claim that Brendan. Melling had a visa to work in the USA. That seems unlikely, as former employees will tell you that it was known by many that Brendan Melling did not have a Social Security card and number. The Barbers had to rent a car and a house for him because of that. Anyone who had a legal right to work in the US has a social security number issued for tax purposes, even for an short internship.
The second allegation in doubt is the claim that he was held in high regard by personnel of the US military. It is hard to believe that an Australian who had never been in the USA before 2016 would have had any contact with anyone in the active duty US military involved in battery procurement or technology. Employees mentioned a couple of former officers, now working in civilian life, that visited the plant and met with the staff at the Barber's invitation but they did not know Mr. Melling before their visit. These visitors declined to invest in Oakridge, one can guess that they were not overly impressed.
As far as the supposed battery knowledge of Mr Melling, it is better illustrated by an encounter described by several of the employees. One day, a potential investor from California came to Oakridge. The staff put on a presentation of the products being developed, including a home storage unit meant to compete with Tesla's Powerwall. Brendan Melling made the surprising claim to that potential investor that the Oakridge design would hold more power because of the superior technology they used. Hearing this, two of the senior engineers (both held the title of Director) took out their calculators and did the math. They looked at each other knowingly, that claim was bogus!
Only two reasons can explain making a false statement that was easily verifiable. One is that Brendan Melling was so ignorant about lithium-ion batteries that he did not understand the difference between the cells used by Tesla and the ones Oakridge planned to use. The second is that he lied on purpose to convince a visitor to invest in Oakridge. If it is the first reason, then he was clearly incompetent, in the case of the second, he was guilty of attenpting criminal fraud.
I have spoken to many members of the staff at the time and find it unlikely that a former employee wrote that post. The claim that Brendan Melling inspired him "to be a better person" is so over the top that I believe Mr. Melling is the poster, tooting his own horn. The employees do not describe him in such high regard. They had to watch what they said in front of Mr. Melling, knowing that it would go straight to the Barbers. He was the one who told people that they were fired and escorted them out because Steve Barber is a coward who can't fire employees himself.
Mr. Melling was dealt a bad hand by being lured to Florida to be Director of Marketing and then having the responsibilities of GM dumped on him. However that does not excuse the fact that he helped the Barbers hurt a lot of people in Florida and investors nationwide. If one is handed responsibilities he can't handle competently, the honorable thing to do is resign.
Thank you for your input. I admit to not having followed the company before the Barbers took control, so I can't speak to what happened when Lee Arrowood ran the place. Question: if Lee Arrowood stole from the company, how come no lawsuit or criminal complaint ever came about? Is there evidence of any?
I have spoken to many people who were there when Brendan Melling was the General Manager and their opinion is not quite the same as yours.
Brendan Melling was reputed to have knowledge of the lead batteries but is not trained as an engineer nor did he ever work in a battery manufacturing facility. He also had a very limited knowledge of lithium ion cells, which is a drawback when leading a lithium ion shop. Managing a lead acid battery retail outfit does not train a person to know everything. The best example I was given was his ridiculous idea for a battery with a hole in it for cooling, which displayed a total lack of lithium iron phosphate cell technology. No one makes batteries like that.
In addition, as an Australian, Brendan Melling had no knowledge of American employment laws. For example, when employees were let go, none were offered the chance to continue their health insurance coverage through COBRA. Considering that this is required BY LAW, failure to do so is a major violation.
I know of one former employee who fell gravely ill and ended up in the hospital without coverage because of Brendan Melling's failure to obey US employment law. The person wrote several times to the company requesting the COBRA paperwork but was ignored. This is specially despicable since allowing an employee to continue coverage would have cost the company nothing. This was Melling's responsibility and he failed to fulfill his obligation. The company would have been sued if it had not shut down.
He may have been well meaning and dedicated, but others were hurt by his lack of experience.
Oakridge website is offline.
For those still keeping an eye on this train wreck of a company, I noticed today that the website is down. All the info on the site was false anyway. I guess the optimistic January update about a new investor was no more true than all the other press releases from Steve Barber!
Since this topic is ow pretty much finished, I will leave everyone with one story I was told by a former employee who had the misfortune of attending business dinners with the Barbers. Steve Barbers enjoyed having business dinners where he would "entertain" his guests with tales that always centered on how awesome the Barbers are and how much more accomplished than anyone they are.
The most telling stories involves Steve Barbers' driving expertise. He told several times the story of taking the driving test after coming to America and that the examiner stopped him mid-test and said " Mr Barber, you are the best driver I have ever seen, no need to finish the test". Does anyone believe that this actually happened?
Another story involves Barber going to a race car driving school as a young man. The school was run by a former champion that still managed a team. Barber told the story of being invited to test drive by that former champion who found him to be so talented that he offered Steve Barber a chance to drive for his team!
So the lesson of these stories is this. Be weary of investing in a company lead by someone who has an enormous ego not matched by his actual management skills.
BEST Magazine reports on Oakridge.
Battery & Energy Storage Magazine, a UK-based magazine dedicated to the battery industry is reporting on Oakridge's failure to pay its employees. See www.bestmag.co.uk. BEST is an influential magazine, widely read among battery industry professionals and published in both English and Chinese.
While this report is not news to those who have been following this company, it means that the status of Oakridge will be known by investors and battery professionals worldwide. Steve Barber is not only a local failure in Florida but now an internationally known one.
If anyone wishes to see the Palm Bay Oakridge building advertised for rental/sale by the owner, you may see it at http://www.towerinv.com/index.php/property?propertyID=186
Thanks for the advice, but I do not own any stock of OGES. Any statement I made about Oakridge is truthful and accurate. It is lawful for me to contact Oakridge employees and get their stories.
You may know something the rest of us don't but my understanding is that as a partner in the Precept Fund, Steve Barber is still CEO of Oakridge. Of course, the other partners may not be too pleased with that costly debacle at Oakridge and may replace him. Time will tell. If another CEO is hired and Precept or others are willing to invest significant capital in the organization, you are correct in that anything is possible.
However, if Oakridge wants to do business in the USA ever again, they will have to settle all the lawsuits brought against them by former employees and suppliers. And they will have to hire a whole new team of battery technologists, not an easy tasks for a company with such a bad reputation.
The key will be the capital investment required to staff a plant, purchase equipment and parts and build a distribution network. We are talking of tens of millions of dollars, even for something as simple as pack assembly. As a reference point, SAFT spent $200 millions to build their lithium ion battery factory in Jacksonville. It is rather large, 250,000 sq. ft , but it gives a good indication of the kind of capital required to play in this game. And this was just the cost of the factory, not R&D, marketing, distribution networks, supplier development etc. I would guess that $40,000,000 would be required to make serious attempt at relaunching Oakridge, maybe more.
Barber told people that he had the $25 million from the Leclanche sale and that Precept was willing to invest tens of millions more. That's how he got people to quit their jobs and move to Florida. Yet, the whole summer of 2016 was spent trying to raise money from investors, notably a former US Army general who was rumored to be tight with a Saudi prince, according to former employees.
According to the people who worked there, Steve Barber really did want to manufacture batteries but he overestimated his ability to raise funds, hired people before he was ready and used the team as props for his fund raising efforts. When he failed, the house of cards came crashing down.
Steve Barber contact Info.
Looking online at some SEC filings, I came across Steve Barber's contact info in Australia. Anyone who wishes to communicate with this individual to express an opinion on the status of Oakridge can reach him at:
Precept Asset Management Limited
Attn. Steve Barber
Level 1, 16 O'Connell Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
Australia
Email: Steve.Barber@preceptfundmanagement.com
Tel. 61 2 9233 0700
I read the January press release. I don't find any reason to believe that it is any more truthful than all the other previous releases that have been proven to be full of falsehoods.
If Steve Barber wishes to restart his company in Hong Kong or Japan, this means a completely new strategy from the "made-in-America" selling point he was peddling. Furthermore his business plan is hardly unique. He has no special proprietary technology and anyone can buy cells from Panasonic or SONY and assemble battery packs. There are already many competitors who are established and in production, how does he plan to dislodge them?
Why would anyone invest in a company led by someone known for making ambitious claims that never came true? What is his track record? Lawsuits from suppliers who never got paid. Employees cheated out of their salaries. Even their Florida law firm cut off ties with the Barbers.
Fleeing the country to escape their creditors is not what successful and honorable businessmen do.
Not shut down? Let's recap. No employees left, no engineers left, building padlocked. Power turned off by FPL. Being sued by multiple vendors.
This is a "company" that manufactures nothing hence sells nothing. How's that for DD!
Who is buying Oakridge stock? I can't help notice that Oakridge stock has traded up from 5 cents to 9 cents. I can't help wondering who in their right mind buys stock in a shut down company with no engineers or workers? This may be the case of "chartists" who just look at the stock price without researching fundamentals but it still baffles me. Has anyone heard any good news about Oakridge?
I think we are discussing different eras. There were many phases to the Oakridge story. Once, they made cells and assembled actual products in the Sarno road facility. The actual quality of these products is unknown to me. But when the company was relocated to Palm Bay and Lee Arrowood and the initial team dismissed, Steve Barber changed his story.
From Spring 2016 forward, the sales pitch to employees and visiting investors was that Oakridge would design and assemble products made from cutting edge, latest generations cells from Japan. Barber claimed to have a unique pipeline to superior cells because of his business relationships there. Products were designed by the engineering team in 2016 that were all powered from Japanese lithium ion cells of common formats.
None of the new products designs that were shown to potential investors could be made from the small pouch cell making equipment in Palm Bay. So there was no plan to "modify" the existing equipment to make the new products, this could not be done.
The best proof of that is found in the press release where Barber claims to want to partner with a Florida University to turn the Palm Bay building into a Battery University. It is clear that he wanted to donate all the small format pouch cell making equipment to a university in exchange for them taking over the lease, thus freeing him to start from scratch in another building. I've been told that no Florida University was ever remotely interested.
The information I have comes from former Oakridge employees. They are easy to find on LinkedIn and many are eager to tell their story. It is not pretty.
Lee Arrowood tells people that he resigned but Steve Barber claims to have fired him and has blamed all the company's previous issues on him. I think it is quite possible that Mr. Arrowood was placed in a position where he had no choice but to resign.
I was surprised that the Leclanche shares did not bring enough capital to finance the company longer. However, that is assuming that all the proceeds of the sale went into the coffers of Oakridge, not to pay off other debts. Former employees describe the Barbers as being in non-stop fundraising mode all summer, despite the Leclanche sale, so I guess very little went for Oakridge.
Oakridge press releases did mention the Leclanche sale proceeds as going to fund Oakridge operations and growth.
This was the press release: "MELBOURNE, FL--(Marketwired - Jan 5, 2016) - Oakridge Global Energy Solutions, Inc. ( OTCQB : OGES ) is excited to announce that it has sold its entire interest, 11,000,000 shares, of European battery manufacturing company Leclanché (LECN), with financial close dated December 30, 2015. While details of this transaction are under non-disclosure with the buyer, Golden Partner Management SPC of Luxemburg, the purpose of the sale is to make available the necessary capital to fund Oakridge's previously announced expansion strategy."
People invested in Oakridge and others left jobs to take positions with Oakridge based on this press release stating that the sale would finance the company! If the funds went elsewhere, would this not constitute fraud?
I agree that this company once had potential and blame the incompetent management of Steve Barber for the loss of Oakridge's share price. The worst mistake was the sacking of Lee Arrowood to be replaced by Brendan Melling as General Manager. Not only is Mr. Melling not an engineer by education or training, but he had no lithium-ion battery experience. I've been told that he was essentially a lead acid battery salesman back in Australia.
Furthermore this change in leadership was never communicated to the investing public. No press releases mention him being in the leadership role. Maybe because he was working here illegally, as was communicated by several former employees? And what happened to Phil Meeks, who was mentioned in the may 19, 2016 press release as president and CEO?
It is possible for a company to be profitable as a battery pack assembler, as Bren-Tronics does. However, it must be managed competently, be adequately financed at the beginning to survive until sales materialize and must attract and retain personnel with specialized technical skills. At Oakridge, Steve Barber failed to accomplish any of these tasks.
All good questions. I've discussed this topic with my lawyer and the answer is that the Barber's personal assets can't be the target of any lawsuit involving Oakridge. In the US, one creates a company for just that purpose, to shield the investor's personal property from liabilities suffered by a corporation. If the management has broken any laws, there could be criminal prosecution of the officers of the company but it seems incompetence is not a crime.
As far as inventory, there is none. There was no production last year save a few golf cart battery prototypes. There is some cell making equipment, probably left behind in the padlocked building in Palm Bay or in storage. And the company claims to have a patent portfolio. I guess a bankruptcy judge will have to determine who gets what crumbs are left behind. Used battery making equipment sells at a deep discount at auction, I would not expect millions from Oakridge's stuff. The value of the patents is unknown.
Many would be interested to know if Steve Barber was the owner of the cars and HD motorcycles used by him or if they were company property. Employees tell me they were seen in a Dodge Charger Hellcat and a BMW. Several HD motorcycles were parked in the company garage.
New development. One of the Oakridge employee just informed me that a shipping container has been delivered to Steve Barber's house on Lansing Island and that the household belongings and vehicles are being loaded up. Hard to believe that they plan to resume operations.
I have been investigating what is going on at Oakridge. I spoke with several former employees. The bottom line is this: the Palm Bay landlord is suing Oakridge for non-payment of rent and the building is padlocked. FPL has cut off electricity weeks ago. The Barbers keep issuing messages to their remaining employees that the operations will resume but the start date keeps being pushed back. Steve and Suzanna Barber quietly packed up their office belongings and removed them from the building before their "holiday" shutdown in Mid December. Then left for Australia.
The cell making equipment in the Palm Bay building is old and designed to manufacture small format pouch cells but Oakridge is marketing products assembled from cylindrical cells such as 18650s that they can't make.
More troubling is the fact that all the senior management and technical staff have either been let go or have found other jobs when paychecks stopped coming. All the people mentioned in the May 2016 press release about a new team are now working elsewhere. A quick LinkedIn search will confirm that. The only exception is Brendan Melling, the General Manager, who is Australian and had never worked in the US until 2016, let alone managed a company here. Former employees have stated that he did not have a green card or H1B visa or social security card while in Florida.
There is no way to restart operations with no engineers and only a dozen or so operators. Even if Precept was to find new investors, who will come to work for an outfit known for not paying employees?
Oakridge Global Energy Solutions down to $0.15. Still not reopened since December. Still have not paid back employees for missing paychecks. Will they ever reopen?