Mary Burke Was Fired By Her Own Family for Slumping Sales, Management Incompetence, and an Abrasive, #Bossy Style; Now Claims She Wasn't Fired, It's Just That Her Job and Paycheck Were Restructured Out of Existence

@benk84 linked this this morning, wondering: Why did the media never check into Mary Burke's actual history as an "executive"?

She had been the CEO of her family's bicycle company's European division.

She was a disaster.

In 1993, Tom Albers learned about big problems with Trek Bicycle Corporation's European division. Sales numbers were down, and employees were in a near mutiny against the young woman Trek founder Richard Burke had put in charge.

Albers, Trek’s Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, served as Burke’s second-in-command and suddenly had to navigate a very difficult situation.

The head of Trek's European division was his boss’ daughter, Mary.

...

"Her performance in Europe was not good"” [Albers] says. "We were losing a lot of money for us at the time. I don't remember the amount, but it was considered significant based on where we were [as a company] at that particular point in time."

"And also, we were encountering personnel/people problems over there. The people were threatening to leave the company. Many of them were."

Primarily, Albers contends, because of the managerial style of their supervisor, Mary Burke.

"Her way of managing was kind of a 'her way or the highway' kind of approach to things," Albers explains, adding that her subordinates "felt that she wouldn't listen to them and was just imposing things on them that didn't make sense."

Gee, I wonder how she wound up being a Democrat politician.

Mary Burke fought back against these late disclosures alleging that they were "ridiculous" and "completely false."

Now she "clarifies" that she wasn't fired -- it's just that the position she was occupying was eliminated, and she was not offered another position at the company.

And then she went snow-boarding for two years.

You know -- not like a firing at all.

posted by Ace at 03:40 PM

| Access Comments