Chapter 11 - The Board Did Not Let Me Become the Hero Either
Holloway Urban Partners suspended Ethan from:
deal authority
while the investigation continued.
Not fired instantly.
Not stripped of ownership.
Board process.
Independent counsel.
Interim management.
The company disclosed:
material issues
to affected lenders.
Painful.
Necessary.
Some projects required:
additional sponsor equity,
new controls,
outside oversight.
One lender increased pricing.
Another demanded:
quarterly forensic review.
Reputation suffered.
Not fatal.
The West Seventy-Fourth Street project was sold to a larger developer at:
a loss.
Holloway survived.
Smaller.
Less glamorous.
Probably healthier.
Then the board asked me:
Would I return as CFO?
Every old instinct said:
yes.
Company crisis.
Family crisis.
Claire fixes.
I said:
“No.”
They were stunned.
So was I.
The chair, an outside director named Margaret Ellis, asked:
“Why?”
“Because I am part of the governance history too.”
“You identified the problem.”
“Late.”
“You cooperated.”
“Yes.”
“You’re the strongest finance executive we have.”
“That does not mean the healthiest structure is putting the founder’s daughter back in charge because the founder’s son failed.”
Margaret stared.
Then smiled slightly.
“What do you want?”
“An outside CFO.”
“Independent compliance.”
“Formal related-party policy.”
“No family officer with unilateral intercompany transfer authority.”
“And I want to remain on the board only after parental leave, subject to the same conflict rules as everyone else.”
That was perhaps the first decision I made that truly broke:
the Holloway model.
Dad built:
company
around:
family trust.
We needed:
company rules
that could survive family failure.
The board hired:
an outside CFO.
For once, I let somebody else fix:
the numbers.
I went home.
Put my feet up.
And allowed myself to be:
May you like
pregnant.
---
