BCBusiness

THE sHorT GooDBYE Arvind Gupta and Joe Natale, former heads of UBC and Telus, respectively, both resigned a year in—but few details were given pauL jOsEpH (LEFT); caNadiaN pREss (RigHT) NOVEMBER 2015 BCBusiness 41 $351,000 for Gupta, includ- ing the costs of the recruiting ˆrm, travel, accommodation and advertising—would have to begin again. Over at Telus, just three days after Gupta's departure, B.C.'s corporate titan issued its own media release stat- ing that, following "an exten- sive review" by its board of directors, CEO Joe Natale would be steppi ng dow n after slightly more than one year at the helm. The CEO, who earned $9.4 million last year but worked out of Telus's Toronto of'ice, "indicated that a move to Western Canada would not work for him and his family for several years," according to the August 10 statement. Natale remains with the company as an executive of'icer until the end of next month; details of his departure pack- age were not disclosed. For some observers, it is dif'icult to interpret either Gupta's or Natale's exit as any- thing less than a failure. There are direct costs in packaging out a CEO, and UBC will have to shell out for another exec- utive search. But the impact on reputation and branding– more dif'icult to quantify– may be higher. While no one wants to admit they erred in their leadership selection, organizations the size of Telus and UBC must still be held accountable to stakeholders for such decisions. Mark Wexler, professor of management and organi- zation studies at SFU, argues the wall of silence following Gupta's parting isn't accept- able from the public's stand- point. "It seems to me that when a university spends that much money in a search that takes a long time, hires someone for ˆve years then lets them go in 13 months— that requires a little more explanation, not just to the faculty but the taxpayer." Wexler adds that much of the controversy could have been averted if Gupta and UBC board of governors chair John Montalbano had given a "sit-down" press conference together. This needn't have contravened the nondis- closure agreement. "Even if only 30 per cent of what happened was revealed, most people would have said, 'OK, there's an explanation.' It doesn't have to be a hell of a lot of information—it has to be a handshake and a smile." As for Telus, Natale's departure a year after being appointed CEO "raises ques- tions of what's going on" at Canada's third-largest tele- communications company, according to Jim Hoggan, president of Vancouver PR 'irm Hoggan & Associates. This, in turn, creates uncer- tainty about the company's gover na nce c apabi l it ies. When change occurs, he says, stakeholders must be assured that "the situation is being managed well, and you want to be communicating this in a really clear way." To many boards, a CEO's reluctance to move to head of'ice would immediately signal a lack of com- mitment to the orga- nization. But part of the blame also lies at the board's feet, says Matt Fullbrook, man- ager of the Clarkson Centre for Board Effectiveness at Uof T's Rotman School of Management, who notes that sharing power with his former boss might have proven untenable for Natale. "Darren Entwistle's position as execu- tive chair immediately fol- lowing his tenure as CEO is not common and presented a risk that the lines between his

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