I would agree completely with you, if the next sentence was "In a similar situation at a different company, no one on the board..." But without such a line, I

I would agree completely with you, if the next sentence was "In a similar situation at a different company, no one on the board..." But without such a line, I read that as commentary based on previous experiences, followed by a continuation of the main story. (I assumed that "the board" in the next sentence referred to the board in the first part, which lead to the continuation. This is re-enforced by using "This company" and "the company" which would imply that the author was referring to the only company introduced)