Regis, I don't mind your getting on the "soapbox" at all. It is good to have someone to keep my ranting in check. First, I never claimed that Dr. Babish was a managerial genius. I think Rhodes must take ultimate responsibility for the managerial decisions that occurred in the company because 1) He had more stock than Babish and could outvote Babish in company matters and 2) He was President and CEO of the company whereas Babish was just the vice-president. Maybe organizational charts don't matter in a company as small as this, but I firmly believe that ultimate responsibility lies at the top of the command chain. I really have no idea which decisions Babish supported and which ones he opposed. I don't know whose bright idea it was to give away the Ah immunoassay or buy back PRLN's stock in the open market. I do know this. When the company started out Babish was the founder, president and CEO. He gave up these positions in hiring Rhodes so that Rhodes would concentrate on business opportunities and he could concentrate more of his time on the science end of things. Babish may be faulted for poor judgement and business ineptitdue, but Rhodes should bear ultimate responsibility since he was hired to run the business.
As far as ethical matters go, it is certainly possible that Rhodes might not be the only person ethically challenged. This is from the 1996 annual report:
"During fiscal 1996 and 1995, the Company made loans to its Vice President and Chief Science Officer. Such loans are due on demand and bear interest at 8% per annum. As of September 30, 1996 and 1995, these loans aggregated $56,000 and $26,000 respectively."
One might question the propriety of PRLN making loans to Dr. Babish. There might be a perfectly innocent explanation behind this, but I would like to ask him about it at the stockholders meeting. Unfortunately, there has been no meeting. Dr. Babish wants a meeting. Rhodes does not. Babish wants the stockholders to know what happened. Rhodes does not. Perhaps Rhodes does not bear 100% of the guilt for the fiascos, but their respective behaviors lead me to believe that any ethical lapses on Dr. Babish's part is dwarfed by those of Rhodes.
Robin |
