October 31, 2014

How to think about the question "Was Mary Burke fired from Trek?"

Christian Schneider offers 4 pointers:
1.  The debate seems to be largely one of semantics...
If your father and brother decided they wanted to remove you from your position in the family company, they wouldn't label you "fired." They'd probably do what they could to shield you.
2.  When asked for sales number from Burke’s European days by the Associated Press, John Burke said that he “did not have detailed financial records from that far back, but there was one year where the company had a loss.” The idea that a multimillion dollar corporation that operates around the world doesn’t keep financial records from 20 years ago is preposterous.  If there are no records, then where does Mary Burke get the numbers that she raised sales from $3 million to $50 million? Further, how is it that Trek has enough institutional memory to trash its ex-employees who are named in the initial story, but can’t seem to remember why Mary Burke left the company?...
These are Schneider's substantive points. Point 3 is just tweaking liberals for treating this one secretive big corporation differently from others. Point 4 refers to the assertion made (by whom?) that Burke "moved Trek’s European offices from Frankfurt, Germany to Amsterdam because she 'didn’t care for the German people' and because Amsterdam 'better reflected her lifestyle.'" I don't see what that has to do with whether Burke was fired, and Schneider seems to be repeating what he admits is "entirely hearsay" because it might offend the many people of German extraction who live in Milwaukee, "the most German city in America."

Anyway, that hearsay, even if true, is paraphrase. A preference for Amsterdam as a base for an American bike company might be quite sound, and who knows what casual things one might say explaining that decision to confidantes?

ADDED: Another former Trek employee comes forward, this time in defense of Mary Burke: "As Mary does everything, she put her heart and soul into the task," Denise DeMarb wrote. "Did she make mistakes, probably. Was she under pressure, certainly. Did she perform a huge feat — yes she did." DeMarb is president pro tem of the Madison city council.

85 comments:

Beldar said...

It's the Wisconsin version of Wendy Davis from Texas, isn't it?

Hasn't Burke's central premise been that she's a successful, experienced businesswoman who will bring kinder, gentler, and capital-D Democratic government without sacrificing Walker's competency?

And just like Wendy Davis' single-mom-at-Harvard story, it turns out not to be quite like she's made it out to be. Not even very close, actually.

So yeah, the debate is about semantics, because there can't be any doubt she's a liar — just how obvious a liar.

garage mahal said...

These are Schneider's substantive points.

There is nothing substantive about this WPRI hack, and Walker bootlicker.

David said...

"Moved to Amsterdam" is a dog whistle for "smoked dope."

RecChief said...

I think he hit the nail on the head with points one and two. I think, at least the Wisconsinites I know, woudl think about it in the same way.

It's the old "She means well" or "She's a nice person" and there is always a "but...." that follows.

RecChief said...

David said...
"Moved to Amsterdam" is a dog whistle for "smoked dope."


Yeah, wasn't there some controversy about an olympic snow boarder who tested positive for pot a few years ago?

hahahahaha

madAsHell said...

"moved Trek’s European offices from Frankfurt, Germany to Amsterdam because she 'didn’t care for the German people' and because Amsterdam 'better reflected her lifestyle.'"

If the quotes are correct, then I think we can see how insensitive she might be.

Anonymous said...

Burke probably did ask to be relieved because she was burned out after three years of selling bikes. Good thing four years of being governor is so much less stressful.

traditionalguy said...

And then the Argentina snow boarders community better reflected her unemployed life style.

Buying a political career from the War on Women party is an heroic effort to end her unemployment.

Burke deserves our respect like any brave participant in a 12 step program for unemployed spoiled rich kids does.

JHapp said...

My bet is that her termination at Trek was a big coverup and someone at Trek finally realized that Trek wasn't going to sell another bike if they didn't come clean before the election.

Shanna said...

Point 4 refers to the assertion made (by whom?) that Burke "moved Trek’s European offices from Frankfurt, Germany to Amsterdam because she 'didn’t care for the German people' and because Amsterdam 'better reflected her lifestyle.'" I don't see what that has to do with whether Burke was fired

If that was her reasoning, it certainly doesn't sound like her decision would have been for good business reasons. And it probably was expensive. So it could tie in to her being a bad manager in many ways, if true.

As I said in the other thread, there is no way her family members don't remember every detail of this. It's been gossiped about for years. Ask somebody in the family who doesn't currently work for the company and they can probably give you all the details.

Gusty Winds said...

It is not uncommon in business and manufacturing to have daddy put his princess or little prince in a position she / he cannot handle.

I spent thirteen years at a great company, which wasn’t so great anymore when the kids graduated college and were given inflated titles. I left. So did others.

The owners eventually sent one child back to grad school in Denver to go in to social work.

It doesn’t surprise me to hear that Ms. Burke created a mutinous atmosphere. The spoon fed second generation is more difficult to deal with than the first generation entrepreneur. It’s not a shocking narrative.

Anonymous said...

The other good thing about accepting Burke's story: this is the closest you will ever hear liberals come to admitting that those corporate officers being all corporationy in their corporate offices may actually be earning their pay.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Sounds like she was a victim of the patriarchy.

hawkeyedjb said...

"There is nothing substantive about this WPRI hack, and Walker bootlicker."

Whoa. That's some pretty hard-hitting analysis there, full of factual refutation. I am completely convinced.

chickelit said...

I don't see what that has to do with whether Burke was fired, and Schneider seems to be repeating what he admits is "entirely hearsay" because it might offend the many people of German extraction who live in Milwaukee, "the most German city in America."

When the final results are tallied next week, it might be instructive to consider the ethnic make-up of Wisconsin voters who rejected Mary Kloppenburg.

chickelit said...

Actually, moving a bike business from Germany to Holland is a sound business tactic if you've ever spent time in either country.

Wince said...

Hey, if only she only brought back monkey bars, banana seats and extended, welded-together double front "chopper" forks I'd fuckin' vote for her.

Amichel said...

The Dutch love bikes, I've gotta give them that.

Shanna said...

Actually, moving a bike business from Germany to Holland is a sound business tactic if you've ever spent time in either country.

It very well might be, but only if it's based on a sound cost benefit analysis, including taxes and costs for moving - not if it's based on prefering amsterdam as a town and the people to germany.

RecChief said...

chickelit said...
Actually, moving a bike business from Germany to Holland is a sound business tactic if you've ever spent time in either country.


Yeah, there is that.

Peter said...

Just a memory of working for a family-owned business when the owner's son came home from college for the summer. His first words to the employees were, "I got some people fired last year."

But that company went out of business (although I was long-gone by the time it did). Although I'd assume family-owned businesses that are run better than this one was do actually force out their progigals if/when they cause too much damage (or at least "promote" them to a job where they can do little damage).

Nonetheless, the experience made me appreciate the colder, more impersonal relationship one has as an employee of a publicly-traded company.

Anonymous said...

600 Microsoft employees in the Seattle area were not recently fired from their jobs.

Instead, Microsoft just decided to downgrade the positions to non existent.

MikeDC said...

> A preference for Amsterdam as a base for an American bike company might be quite sound

Say what?

The expense of up and moving a corporate headquarters is generally quite high.

It's expensive and pisses off high-value employees under the best of circumstances. Not just Mary Burke but everyone else has to up and move from Frankfurt to Amsterdam. Or go find a new job.

That's not a decision to be made on a whim. You only commit to it if you're going to save an obvious boatload of money (usually in the form of tax breaks) by doing it or have some kind of really obvious business reason to do it (like how Big Pharma or tech firms get a cost and labor advantage by congregating in New Jersey and Silicon Valley).

Neither explanation seems likely here. So instead what we're left with is the idea that Burke either on a whim, or through calculation that it would cause hardship for the employees she didn't like, decided to move the company.

In short, she shouldn't be in charge of anything.

Mark said...

Not only was Mary Burke fired, the muzzle velocity was sufficient to carry her all the way to Argentina.

tim maguire said...

Point 1 doesn't seem like much of a point--he is quite right that the family would be unlikely to call it a firing regardless of the motivation for th edecision, but that doesn't make it semantic. The fact that she moved on to "ski bum" suggests she wasn't cut out for the working life.

Point 2 has been a rusty hinge from the start--some of the people in this debate have the numbers, but nobody is citing them to support their case. This, it seems to me, cuts hard against Burke--she can get the paperwork and would if it supported her argument.

Bobber Fleck said...

At least the 1993 firing of Ms. Burke explains the timing and motivation of her snow boarding sabbatical. It is also now clear why the details around that sabbatical were so scarce.

This revelation about her work career helps us understand what Ms. Burke is all about.

"...moved Trek’s European offices from Frankfurt, Germany to Amsterdam because she 'didn’t care for the German people' and because Amsterdam 'better reflected her lifestyle.'"

The statement above confirms my view that Ms. Burke is a child of privilege. The rest of us would have been focused on business results instead of our "lifestyle".

chickelit said...

Bicycles are number 1 on the list of Stuff Dutch People Like*

Just sayin'
_______________
*This is not a political endorsement of Mary Burke. If lived in WI, I would vote for Walker.

chickelit said...

What's also true is that older Dutch cyclists are frugal and don't much care for fancy new bikes. The younger Dutch are more affluent and go for fancier stuff.

Michael K said...

"There is nothing substantive about this WPRI hack, and Walker bootlicker." Says the Burke bootlicker.

rehajm said...

Point 3 is just tweaking liberals for treating this one secretive big corporation differently from others.

Point 3 is important. Point 3 is Rule 4.

Mr. D said...

Here's what slays me about the whole thing — there was an easy way to explain what happened and make it work to Burke's advantage — all they had to do was to make her the prodigal daughter. The events in question happened 20 years ago. Burke and her campaign managers could have laid out the story this way — she had to learn some hard lessons early on in her career, but after she took time in the wilderness to reassess what she was doing and how she approached the business and her life generally, she was able to return to the fold and become a major contributor to what has become a wildly successful business. This would have been a narrative that everyone in the Wisconsin media would have loved and trumpeted to the hilltops. And if she'd posited things this way, what Ellerman and Albers have said would have been a lot easier for people to dismiss — why are you sour grapes people talking about ancient history like this?

It was monumentally stupid to think that she could get by with the story she's been telling. And now she's getting what she deserves.

RecChief said...

I don't know if or why Trek's european hq moved to Amsterdam, but I will point out that Schiphol airport gets more international traffic than Frankfurt. You can also fly nonstop from Minneapolis and it's less than a 9 hour flight, where it's closer to 11-12 hours to Frankfurt, and it's less cost to fly to Amsterdam too.

Just saying, it's conceivable that there were good business reasons to move to a country that has more of a bicycling culture than Germany. Doesn't change Schneider's points 1 and 2 however.

Drago said...

Alternate garage: 'Please pay no attention to the actual performance and timeline of Mary Burkes tenure while at Trek. She's just awesome!'

Brennan said...

If Burke wins, it would bolster the ridiculous argument that nobody is ever really fired or laid off, their operation is merely eliminated and therefore employment is over.

But not fired.
And not terminated.
And not laid off.

It's not as if you were fired. It's just that your job no longer exists.

Dear Mitt Romney...

Drago said...

Alternate garage "2": 'Mary Burke was "promoted" out of Trek for outstanding performance!!'

garage mahal said...

"There is nothing substantive about this WPRI hack, and Walker bootlicker." Says the Burke bootlicker.

Schneider wrote a column about Kyle Wood, who was the victim of assault from angry Democrats. What really happened? He smashed his own face with an aquarium rock. The story was so bad the Journal -Sentinel pulled the column completely without explanation. That's the sort of sources hacks like Schneider and Wisconsin Reporter use. Just like the latest unhinged racist for this story, and the violent, racist who drunk dials death threats to District Attorneys before that. It would be comical if MSM outlets didn't fall for it every single time.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Fat divorced barely graduated high school progtard attempts to shoot messenger.

Fails miserable.

Rages at Burke's coming trouncing.

"Have a Happy November 4th, jackass."

garage mahal said...

Rages at Burke's coming trouncing.

I can appreciate that you worship racists, because you are a filthy racist, but, why would Walker feel the need to come out with such an obvious smear job this late if he was comfortably ahead?

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Finding myself on the same side of Garage is a new experience.

Still no good sourcing, still no paper trail, and the timing is suspicious. Why wait until a week before the election to break the story?

The only way to counter the story is to release some records and have some credible sources go on record to contradict it. Republicans with axes to grind aren't credible. Anonymous sources aren't credible.

Republican candidates have to deal with this crap all the time. It's rare that media games backfire- the 2004 Bush memo forgeries were an exception. John McCain's supposed affair with a lobbyist was a smear that made the New York Times, with no sources and no confirmation.

I don't think that smears should decide elections. This one is flimsy enough that the media sat on them until a week out. That's the most suspicious thing about it. If the story were true, why not break it months earlier, instead of that stupid plagiarism thing?

It could be true, but if it is the news outlets need to work harder to convince me. So far, it's crap.

Joe Schmoe said...

I think his point #1 doesn't go far enough into the family dynamic. Her father ultimately gave her the job. It seems like she didn't have much or any experience before taking on the task of expanding European markets. That's a huge job. When it was determined that she was failing at it, did they then decide just to let her go? I doubt it. They probably offered her assistance in some fashion; such as sending over an experienced executive to work with her.

I'm wondering at what point did they decide to relieve her of her duties. Was she resistant to their offers of help? Was she unwilling to assume a subordinate role? Or maybe she knew she was in over her head and looking for a way out. In that case, the conversation with her father and brother becomes a pretty easy one, and not one where things like "you're fired" come up. There's an unspoken understanding that this will be explained in terms of things like 'mutual agreement' and 'looking forward to trying other challenges'.

I assume also that her father felt bad for putting his daughter in a situation where she failed. He gave her a difficult job. Of course he's not going to make her look like the scapegoat because at the end of the day he wants to protect his daughter. It would have to be a pretty rough relationship for it to be otherwise. I would feel terrible for my daughters if I put them in a similar situation. Much of the fault for the entire situation would be my own.

The semantics of the situation were that when dealing directly with the Burkes, she wasn't fired per se. But among the non-family members, it's pretty clear she was fired. Whether it was because of her own obstinacy to change or her own desire to flee is still unknown.

I don't excuse her for continuing to paper over this episode of her life because that's how it was dealt with in the first place.

David said...

Actually, this is another gift to the liberals of Wisconsin. Walker was going to win anyway, but now they can complain that Burke was screwed by a dirty trick. Losers need excuses.

Mark said...

Burke has a fairly good response ad she just released. If she can plaster that all over the Packer game it might be an effective counter.

garage mahal said...

Walker was going to win anyway,

And...Walker wants to be remembered paired with an unhinged racist? Here is Burke's rebuttal.

Achilles said...

John Lynch said...
"Finding myself on the same side of Garage is a new experience.

Still no good sourcing, still no paper trail, and the timing is suspicious. Why wait until a week before the election to break the story?"

If Burke herself isn't a good source what is? She admitted to being fired already.

FullMoon said...

David said...

"Moved to Amsterdam" is a dog whistle for "smoked dope."


Dutch Parliament OKs Ban on Beastiality 2 February 2010
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — The Dutch parliament voted unanimously Thursday to outlaw bestiality and pornography involving animals.


Bestiality and pornography involving animals was legal when Mary was there....

Achilles said...

Mark said...
"Burke has a fairly good response ad she just released. If she can plaster that all over the Packer game it might be an effective counter."

Low information voters and people who lack critical thinking skills will fall for that "effective counter."

Everyone else will notice she doesn't actually say she didn't get fired for incompetence. Probably because she got fired for incompetence.

Good thing for dems most of their voters are stupid.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Opposing lilly white Mary Burke is now racist now, according to the middle school sports hero.

All that fat has migrated into your head apparently.

Anonymous said...

RecChief:
Frankfurt am Main is Germany's financial center and is centrally-located in Europe with major rail, air and even water-borne shipping infrastructure. Germany itself is much more populous than the Netherlands and represents a much larger market than Holland.
Ffm to A'dam is only about 30mins flight time.
The Frankfurt Flughafen is the third busiest in Europe behind Heathrow and De Gaulle.
Germans are avid bicyclists, although that may not be as apparent because the population is spread-out over more terrain...not crammed into a couple of compact population centers like Amsterdam and den Haag.
And speaking of terrain, the Netherlands are flatter than a Nebraska cornfield... perfect for Huffys and Schwinns. Mountain bikes are built for off-road and, er, mountains. You won't find the parsimonious Dutch buying expensive bikes for around-town transportation when petty theft is so high there.
Frankfurt doesn't have hash-bars though, however a stroll down the Kaiserstrasse in the Bahnhofviertel can gain you access to even that without much trouble.
I've opened a business and lived in Frankfurt, fyi.

Michael said...

Garage Mahal seems all angry.

David said...

Moving to Holland might sound like a good idea for Trek but probably not. The Dutch bicycle manufacturing business was in great decline. They could not compete on price with the imports. Remember that the typical Dutch bike is a technically simple, sturdy, heavy city machine. They were the antithesis of the Trek product and image.

The Dutch no longer make bikes for the mass consumer. The remaining Dutch bike manufacturers either make specialty products (4 and 5 seaters, commercial "transport" bikes etc.) or high end luxury-vanity stuff. When they do make the traditional Dutch bike, they are making a nostalgia product that is directed at high end consumers who want to make a "statement." The classic Oma and Opa bikes (grandmother and grandfather) can still be had from Dutch manufacturers, but at over $2000 per bike.

Amsterdam was and is also one of the most expensive places in Europe to do business. A hell of a lot more expensive than where they were located in Germany.

Reading the Trek Wikipedia page is instructive. (It was probably written by Trek or a major Trek fanboy-girl.) No emphasis whatsoever on Europe in the story of its rise to prominence and profitability. Europe was a minor sideshow, a perfect place (or so they thought) to park Mary for a while.

Anonymous said...

Why wait until a week before the election to break the story?

Perhaps they had to wait for Randa to issue his ruling which allowed for candidates to directly coordinate with outside groups.

Walker said he had knowledge of the alleged firing several months ago, but didn't want to raise the issue himself.

Shanna said...

I don't think that smears should decide elections. This one is flimsy enough that the media sat on them until a week out. That's the most suspicious thing about it.

I think this would be a better argument in a world where the media doesn't routinely sit on things that are bad for democrats (john edwards affair, basically everything in Atkinsons book, etc.)

And non-denials by family members are as good as an admission usually.

Todd said...

garage mahal said...
Walker was going to win anyway,

And...Walker wants to be remembered paired with an unhinged racist? Here is Burke's rebuttal.
10/31/14, 12:02 PM


That is much less a rebuttal and much more a "counter attack". Not saying it is not called for, just that it is NOT a rebuttal. She addresses none of the "charges".

garage mahal said...

She addresses none of the "charges".

Why would Burke have to respond to any of it?

Drago said...

I see the lefties are sticking with the 'Mary Burke was "promoted" out of the company for outstanding performance' schtick.

Hilarious.

Drago said...

garage: "Why would Burke have to respond to any of it?"

Because she has based much of her campaign on her "fabulous" private sector record?

Drago said...

President-Mom-Jeans said...
Opposing lilly white Mary Burke is now racist now, according to the middle school sports hero.

In the same way that opposing Elizabeth Warren means you hate Native Americans.

gadfly said...

John Lynch said...
"Finding myself on the same side of Garage is a new experience.

Still no good sourcing, still no paper trail, and the timing is suspicious. Why wait until a week before the election to break the story?"

For the same reason the Dems launched the fake "John Doe" hearing against Scott Walker maybe?

If you don't like the source of Gary Letterman, who demonstrates distinct political leanings, perhaps the response solicited from Thomas Albers is more sufficient. As a former Trek COO and president, Albers responded to the Wisc State Journal, when asked, that Trek's Euro operations were losing money and Mary Burke was fired although he was not the one who did the firing.

Drago said...

gadfly: "As a former Trek COO and president, Albers responded to the Wisc State Journal, when asked, that Trek's Euro operations were losing money and Mary Burke was fired although he was not the one who did the firing."

Albers couldn't fire her.

Only Mary Burkes family could fire her.

And they did.


'cuz she was so awesome!!

richard mcenroe said...

Something a bit imperative about that title, isn't there?

Mightn't "One way to think about, etc." been a bit more indicative of a willingness to embrace dialogue? Jest sayin'...

Anonymous said...

garage ponders:
Why would Burke have to respond to any of it?

---------------------------------
Ask her why she did, if you are confused. She already responded, she just hasn't addressed the charges.

garage is just a caricature. That, or else too much helmet-to-helmet contact in middle school.

Rusty said...

Michael said...
Garage Mahal seems all angry.

He's always angry.Like Crack, the world steadfastly refused to conform to his his philosophy therefore the world is wrong.And it's all your fault.

Anonymous said...

drago: Companies are always looking to give extended time-off to wildly successful executives. The whole greedy-corporations-lusting-after-profit thing is a myth.
Isn't that really what garage is asserting?

garage mahal said...

She already responded, she just hasn't addressed the charges.

Is she required to respond to every batshit crazy racist Walker supporter? I don't think so.

Anonymous said...

garage has lost it. Tough trick considering he never had it.

The cognitive dissonance is strong in that one.

...and he's a racist pedophile. Unindicted of course.

Drago said...

garage: "Is she required to respond to every batshit crazy racist Walker supporter?"

LOL

If Albers was so batshit crazy, why did Mary Burkes family decide he was just peachy as a President and Chief Operating Officer?

LOL

And when he left another bike company made him their CEO!!

Yep, there's a batshit crazy individual involved in this discussion alright.

And his online name is garage mahal.

Hey, you know who the Burke family didn't trust?

That batshit crazy and business failure Mary Burke.

LOL

Drago said...

Livermoron: "...and he's a racist pedophile. Unindicted of course."

Of course.

Garage does love "blacky's" though (his word).

Just as long as they aren't anywhere near him.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

I think Garage is just taking over for Crack now that he is on his "sabbatical."

There weren't nearly enough idiots calling people racists on this thread, and then behold, Garage appears out of a fat air.

Drago said...

PMJ: "There weren't nearly enough idiots calling people racists on this thread, and then behold, Garage appears out of a fat air."

And who the heck uses the word "blacky"?

Sounds like something some racist in the middle of all white 1920's Wisconsin would say.

damikesc said...

Is she required to respond to every batshit crazy racist Walker supporter?

Albers is both batshit crazy AND racist?

And Trek kept him employed for so long?

Drago said...

damikesc: "And Trek kept him employed for so long?"

According to the garage "rules of racist affiliation", that makes the Burke family itself a bunch of racists!!

Next press question for Mary Burke: Why would your family choose to keep employed a batshit crazy and racist President and COO?

Garage isn't very good at playing out scenarios logically.

damikesc said...

She said she was downsized out of a job. Anybody logical, garage, would wonder why a successful member of a business would be the one downsized out of the job.

Unless she was actually not successful, it makes no sense.

Drago said...

New Walker campaign sticker: "A vote for Mary Burke is a vote for racists!!"

Jupiter said...

I start from the observation that the most important qualification Burke had for the job at Trek was her last name. As Robert Frost put it;
"Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to let you in."

Usually, when that doesn't work out so well, the family just shuffles your duties onto other employees, until you end up Vice President for Flying Around and Partying. She must have been a really major fuck-up if they had no choice but to send her to South America.

Drago said...

Jupiter: "She must have been a really major fuck-up if they had no choice but to send her to South America."

Well, not a garage level fuck up, but still.

Jupiter said...

If your job is to expand European sales, moving out of Europe's largest economy seems, well, questionable. I suppose there could be good reasons, but as noted above, when a company dicks its employees around, the ones who leave are the ones who can get a job elsewhere. The losers move to Amsterdam.

Jupiter said...

Drago said...

"Well, not a garage level fuck up, but still."

Garage does what he can, with what he's got. I am guessing that Burke had learned pretty much everything there is to know at Harvard, maybe even more than there is to know. And some of the people she was promoted over, who had not attended that institution, but instead wasted their youth working for some bicycle manufacturer, were jealous of her evident competence, and sabotaged her brilliant plans.

Be nice to the people you meet on the way up, they say. You'll meet them again on the way down.

Mark said...

I can't help but notice that DeMarb never actually said Burke wasn't fired. She said Burke "mad mistakes, probably" and was "under pressure."

Aside from calling Ellerman and Albers axe-grinders, no quotes from DeMarb actually say Trek as a company was happy with Mary Burke. "She didn't have a cushy job at her dad's company. That wasn't Dick Burke and it isn't his daughter."

Well, yes it was I think, whether it was a cushy job or not.

DeMarb says that in private conversations Richard Burke said Mary was responsible for Trek being a global company. Cool. Pardon me if, in a game of he said/she said, I look at what actually happened. Burke's job in Europe was eliminated. She left the company for two years. When she got back she was given a nice little desk job.

Muzzle velocity. So extreme it took more than two years for her to land.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Burke is a weasel. As someone said yesterday, NO ONE downsizes themselves out of a job after the spectacular success she made her tenure out to be. Has she EVER worked ANY job more than 4 years?

What confidence WI must have in her for her to be within 10 points of Walker!

Darrell said...

Nonsense. She accomplished all her goals ahead on the normal age-65 schedule is all. What more can one ask for? And what do we do? Instead of throwing a parade for her, we sit around and throw stones! Shame! Shame!

Tiga275 said...

I've worked in medium and large businesses for over 30 years and I've seen great and poor leaders. If Mary Burke truly increased European sales to $50M she wouldn't have been let go. That is a hard thing to do and it is likely they would have had her do the same thing for South America or Asia. Also, if you can grow sales like that, you have to have a passion for what you are doing. Someone with that drive and passion would have started their own company or been scooped up by another company. It does not go unnoticed in the business world. I don't care whether she was fired or not, her history since 1993 has been that of someone without leadership skills and the passion to succeed. There is no point in her career where she has clearly demonstrated strong executive leadership. I don't see any way she will start now, especially with a Republican Assembly and Senate. Best she can do is veto some things and call it good.

Original Mike said...

"Burke has a fairly good response ad she just released. If she can plaster that all over the Packer game it might be an effective counter."

The Packers have a bye this week. Nice try, though.

Unknown said...

----Still no good sourcing, still no paper trail, and the timing is suspicious. Why wait until a week before the election to break the story?

The only way to counter the story is to release some records and have some credible sources go on record to contradict it. Republicans with axes to grind aren't credible. Anonymous sources aren't credible. ----


You are unaware of the on-the-record interview with the former company CEO?

http://www.newstalk1130.com/onair/common-sense-central-37717/the-full-interview-with-tom-albers-12919978/

In an incredibly revealing interview with Dan O'Donnell, former Trek Bicycle President and CEO Tom Albers recounts how the company's founder, Richard Burke, removed his daughter Mary as Director of Trek's European Division in 1993.

Read more: http://www.newstalk1130.com/onair/common-sense-central-37717/the-full-interview-with-tom-albers-12919978/#ixzz3HmKU5gle

Unknown said...

---Why wait until a week before the election to break the story?


Why did the Demcrats plant the story about Walker’s love child just before the recall?

Why did the County Executive release the John Doe emails a couple of days ago?

Zach said...

Germany is a huge bike market. And Specialized, one of Trek's big competitors, has a notable presence. I don't recall ever seeing a Trek store or noticing a Trek bike.

Regarding whether Burke was fired: she had a prominent position with a family firm, which she abruptly left. She then proceeded to do nothing for two years. Do you really need a source to tell you when her resume is shouting out loud?