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They fooled everyone. Idk if you read the book but they fooled EVERYONE. Their board: included William Perry (former Secretary of Defense), Henry Kissinger (fo

They fooled everyone. Idk if you read the book but they fooled EVERYONE. Their board: included William Perry (former Secretary of Defense), Henry Kissinger (former Secretary of State), Sam Nunn (former U.S. Senator), Bill Frist (former U.S. Senator and heart-transplant surgeon), Gary Roughead (Admiral, USN, retired), James Mattis (General, USMC), Richard Kovacevich (former Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO) and Riley Bechtel (chairman of the board and former CEO at Bechtel Group). Henry Kissinger was on their board! Investors: by the Walton family ($150 million), Rupert Murdoch ($121 million), Betsy DeVos ($100 million), the Cox family (of Cox Media Group) ($100 million), and Robert Kraft (of the New England Patriots). You would figure there was no faking these people out. How do you dupe former Secretary of States and Generals whom are supposed to be some of the most stringent, dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. It's just an amazing story of how personality can change everything and cause people to have massive blindspots.

micah94 8y ago
I haven't read the book. I would like to because I have a hard time believing a story where that list of people you mention are "fooled".
- acdanger 8y ago
  It seemed to me that they weren't actively "fooled", rather they didn't perform the due diligence you would expect a board member to perform before signing up. But I got the impression this might not be uncommon among startup boards. Also if I recall, there was a lack of medical knowledge on the board as well which surely contributed to the failures in oversight.
samstave 8y ago
Part of the reason she was able to fool such highly prominent people is due to her coming from really old money in the US - with her Fleischmann's Yeast family lineage - her family was in the upper echelons of US monied families (think robber baron class-money).
- emaginniss 8y ago
  Historically, yes, but her immediate family was not particularly wealthy, lived a middle-class lifestyle, and was even in difficult financial straits at times. I think they had the remnants of money on them, but not the actual capital.
  - naniwaduni 8y ago
    An illustration of how wealth and power, inherited across generations, consists of far more than just liquid assets.

micah94 8y ago

I haven't read the book. I would like to because I have a hard time believing a story where that list of people you mention are "fooled".

acdanger 8y ago
It seemed to me that they weren't actively "fooled", rather they didn't perform the due diligence you would expect a board member to perform before signing up. But I got the impression this might not be uncommon among startup boards. Also if I recall, there was a lack of medical knowledge on the board as well which surely contributed to the failures in oversight.

samstave 8y ago

Part of the reason she was able to fool such highly prominent people is due to her coming from really old money in the US - with her Fleischmann's Yeast family lineage - her family was in the upper echelons of US monied families (think robber baron class-money).

emaginniss 8y ago
Historically, yes, but her immediate family was not particularly wealthy, lived a middle-class lifestyle, and was even in difficult financial straits at times. I think they had the remnants of money on them, but not the actual capital.
- naniwaduni 8y ago
  An illustration of how wealth and power, inherited across generations, consists of far more than just liquid assets.