A number of people knew she knew of the errors in management and the reasons. Those same people felt and expressed empathy for her predicament. To her and with her, for hours on end. Her hands were tied. Tough spot to be in.
Nepotism has killed many fine companies and opportunities. When the older generation is still running things, successors are hamstrung. When the elders leave, the successors are often still in the dark and unprepared. When the elders half-leave, utter chaos and disasters.
Many companies do well because of prudent succession planning. Another "No" in the case of BIEL in the Fall of 2016, leading to the resignations of Dr. Staelin and Mary Whelan (smart lady, RIP) from the board.
KW at least had a close proximity to dropped balls. As posted here numerous times, B.Braun has not been in the picture for at least 2 years. The former CEO told me on the phone he had pulled the plug on it....."they never did anything with it". I shuddered at the time, KW HAD to have known. I cannot and will not say more - she knew.
The good thing is she was intelligent enough to know right from wrong and what needed to be done. But powerless. Will she now? A lot of people know exactly what must be done to fix it and how the 7 step management remediation plan will work mostly to the Whelan family benefit.
Spreadsheet a few IBEX transactions with the stock moving just 3 ticks and it's glaring. Lend the money at .0006, means a bonus price of .0003 plus interest. On redemption, trading price is say .0009. Upside spread is .0006. Gravy train. Start with just $500,000, do it 10 times, using borrowed funds and see how much you have...... and at 8% interest, also in shares. No problem paying the debt service on the revolving loans to repeat revolving loans from IBEX to BIEL.
And this is why the share structure must be fixed, why the Whelan family has a greater upside by doing it quickly - the sp would fly....and then again on clearance....and again on deals!!! But, of course, many know first-hand of the famous Whelan stubborn streak. I saw it at work, dozens of times, KW saw it and lived it all her life.
Hopefully she finds the sense to say, what am I missing here? She may not because of the toxicity streak, in which case BIEL stays in the toilet, that same streak out it in 10 years ago.
