Read this article about sex in corporate America, Robert. The CEO was forced to resign.
When was the last CEO dumped because of sex? And, sex happens all the time within the conservative boardrooms of American corporations.
I never spout unsubstantiated b.s.
Copyright 1996 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
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June 24, 1996, Monday, City Edition
SECTION: ECONOMY; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 2316 words
HEADLINE: 'Astra Way' executive fell on a wayward path;
Bildman portrayed as driven by work, pleasure
BYLINE: By Kimberly Blanton and Tina Cassidy, Globe Staff
DATELINE: WESTBOROUGH
BODY:
Lars Bildman had orchestrated it all.
Astra USA workers lining the driveway cheered the approaching motorcade that carried executives from the parent company in Sweden. Once inside Astra's
headquarters, the VIPs were greeted by trumpet bursts that cued employees to unfurl banners into the atrium proclaiming, "Valkommen!" - "Welcome" in Swedish.
Bildman, in a fine business suit and looking every bit the successful chief executive, beamed at how superbly his employees had carried out his orders.
But another side of Bildman was not on display during the ceremony last August. The Bildman who wore madras shorts to work and who liked to frequent
after-work parties with free-flowing alcohol and Beluga caviar. And who, current and former employees say, was openly attracted to beautiful young women working
for him - some of whom now claim he sexually harassed them.
"It was like night and day," said a former staff employee in the Westborough office. "Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."
In April, Bildman, 50, was suspended, along with two other executives, George Roadman and Edward Aarons. The Swedish pharmaceutical company hired a team of
US-based attorneys to investigate widening allegations of sexual harassment, profligate spending and financial fraud under Bildman.
No matter what the outcome of the investigation - a report is expected in a few weeks - Bildman will not return to Astra, according to the company.
Why did Bildman's career, which until a few weeks ago seemed stellar, unravel so quickly? Interviews over the past month with dozens of former and current
employees provide a picture of a complex man driven by an insatiable hunger for business success who was seemingly undermined by his alleged personal excesses.
Sent to America 15 years ago, Bildman transformed Astra USA from a struggling outpost into one of the most successful subsidiaries of one of Sweden's biggest
companies. He devoted long hours to expanding profits and to cavorting with his employees. He was a loving husband and father who also pursued young women.
Along the way, he created an intricate corporate culture, one that was controlling, yet at the same time out of control.
The culture, known as the Astra Way, attracted hundreds of young employees with promises of fast-track careers and fat bonuses. It was a culture dedicated to the
highest quality, from the pharmaceuticals it made to the ice sculptures displayed at its parties.
But the Astra Way also sought to control employees' lives. The gold company pin was part of the dress code. In the glass, pyramid-shaped headquarters here,
employees ate lunch between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. or did not eat at all. And there was the constant pressure, especially on the sales force, to socialize at
after-work parties and at out-of-town meetings. Spouses were not welcome.
"It was like a mind-control," said Craig Lee, a former Astra salesman whose territory included portions of Louisiana and Arkansas. To get ahead, employees "would do
any and all things - are mandated to do any and all things - by upper management to undermine any independence an employee may think he or she may have."
The company frequently made confidential financial settlements with employees who complained about their treatment or about events that disturbed them. Now some
are defying those settlements, which the federal government is challenging as an illegal attempt to cover up wrongdoing inside Astra. A few who claim they were
forced to sign them have come back to sue for more money and, possibly, revenge.
Bildman would not be interviewed for this article. But in a television program aired two weeks ago in Sweden, he denied all allegations against him. "I'm married and I
am perfectly happy with my wife, and I feel that to do that in business would be totally wrong." Roadman and Aarons also would not comment.
Certainly, most employees did not see the darker side of Astra's culture; it played out mostly among employees in the sales force. But the turmoil surrounding
Bildman's departure has left the rest demoralized and in disbelief that such things reportedly went on in their midst.
Jan Larsson, a member of Astra AB's executive committee who replaced Bildman, said he wants the US unit to strive for high ethical standards. "That is what I mean
with the Astra Way - nothing else," he said in a recent interview. "If anybody else has twisted that, that is not the Astra Way at all."
Bildman was, by all accounts, an eccentric chief executive. He seemed to crave the spotlight. His jolly demeanor was highlighted by his taste for outlandish clothes.
But he also had a penchant for expensive suits purchased from Harrod's in London. At company tennis tournaments, held on the courts at the Westborough office,
employees said, they were encouraged to wear tennis whites - and advised to watch Bildman play. To ensure victory, he regularly picked Astra's best tennis player as
his partner.
In his upscale Brookline neighborhood, Bildman's stature grew along with his company's. He, his wife, Annick, and their three children entertained guests at their $ 1.7
million red brick Colonial mansion on Sargent Pond. "I am so shocked by what I'm hearing and seeing, because he absolutely adores his wife and his children," said
Dinah Simonini, of Boston, who became friends of the Bildmans through her children.
Under Bildman, Astra USA expanded significantly. When he arrived in 1981, it was a struggling company with sales of $ 35 million. By last year, they reached $ 328
million. Bildman's success, analysts and employees said, was based on a keen sense of how to motivate his sales representatives posted around the country.
Astra is known for high-quality pharmaceuticals - Xylocaine, its version of novocaine, is so pure it dominated the dental market for years - and a stream of new
products. Astra USA expects to soon begin selling a revolutionary dry-powder inhaler that is the biggest-selling asthma treatment in Europe.
Nevertheless, Sam Isaly, partner at Mehta and Isaly, a New York investment firm, said, "Very few drugs sell themselves."
Bildman motivated Astra's sales reps with a combination of a high-pressure environment and inspirational leadership. Sales goals were high, and employees worked
weekends and holidays if that's what it took to meet them.
Kimberly Cote, a former New England sales rep, said a supervisor once asked her to define the Astra Way. "I said, 'Someone who was willing to go the distance -
whatever it takes.' " She is one of eight former Astra employees suing either the company or current or former managers claiming they were harassed or unfairly
terminated.
For new sales recruits, the Astra Way meant total immersion into the company. During nine rigorous weeks of training, Astra paid for just one trip home to see
family. Sales reps took intensive medical-school classes and were schooled in "SPIN" selling. SPIN - based on four axioms, Situation, Problem, Implication and
Need-Payoff - is a method used by reps to persuade doctors to prescribe Astra pharmaceuticals.
At sales meetings, Bildman gave emotional, one-hour speeches in his thick Swedish accent. Some employees in back snoozed but those in front were attentive.
Bildman "was a true visionary," said Robin Manthe, an Astra sales manager.
And the top-performing sales employees were rewarded with lavish trips - and flattering attention from their boss. Bildman took employees on cruises in the
Caribbean, employees said. "I am really very proud . . . my sales force is the best sales force you can have," Bildman told Swedish TV.
Soon after Bildman took over, he began to put his stamp on Astra. He laid off hundreds of employees in Worcester, replacing them with younger ones to work at a
new Westborough plant. "Right away you could spot these big shots were all ladies' men," said Larry Boucher, an Astra mechanic for 14 years before he was laid off
in 1986.
When Ann Marie Feetham started work as Bildman's administrative assistant in 1983, she admired her boss. He made her feel indispensable, trusting her to buy office
furniture and a phone system. But, she said, Bildman also made her do things that made her uncomfortable. For example, he instructed her to look at the business mail
of all Astra's employees and pass along copies of anything that might interest him, a claim Bildman's attorney denied.
While on a California vacation in February 1984, Feetham was asked to meet Bildman, who was working on the West Coast. After a drink at the hotel bar, she said, he
asked her to come to his room. Yet she saw no papers in the room, no indications of work to be done. In that Los Angeles hotel room, she said, her boss pressured her
to have sex.
Feetham, who was 26, single and four months pregnant at the time, was worried about her job, she said. She said that she felt vulnerable and confused and that she
could not say no to her boss.
"I compromised myself as a woman," said Feetham, who never filed a complaint and has made the charges for the first time. "I felt out of control. . . . I did not feel
afterwards that it was the right thing to do. It was not mutual."
In November 1985, Feetham left Astra voluntarily and was paid a $ 3,164 monthly consulting fee for one year. Since then, she has struggled financially - she was
homeless for a while - and now lives with her boyfriend and five children.
Bildman's attorney, Roderick MacLeish Jr., called Feetham's allegations a "complete fabrication." And Sandy Magnusson, who worked alongside Feetham and is
married to a longtime Bildman acquaintance, Lars Magnusson, said Feetham often confided in her but never told her about a sexual incident with Bildman.
However, there are others who said they frequently fended off Bildman's advances.
Ana Kassab, an Astra sales representative in Miami, said Bildman "would stare and stare," or "if there were 100 people in the room he'd sit by me." While she couldn't
stop the rumors she was romantically involved with Bildman, she got "control of the situation. Never did that man touch me, hold my hand - nothing," said Kassab, 28.
MacLeish said Bildman "denies that he absolutely singled her out for anything."
Employees say Astra's culture began to change significantly around 1991. Bildman won permission from Sweden to add 500 people to his sales force in order to sell
Astra drugs directly to doctors, rather than just to hospitals. Sweden approved the expansion, some employees say, to placate Bildman, who was frustrated by a deal
in which Astra AB had placed the sale of Prilosec - a promising gastrointestinal drug - under a joint venture with Merck & Co. rather than under his supervision.
The new sales recruits were young. Astra, often their first or second job out of college, paid starting salaries of nearly $ 35,000. But many said they were naive about
what was appropriate business behavior.
Sales parties to entertain customers are hardly rare. But Astra took some gatherings to extravagant levels - and employees said they were expected to attend. The
official parties, they said, often led to outrageous behavior. Lee, a former employee, recalls one small party in a room at the Westborough Marriott in which Astra
employees were wrapped only in sheets and demonstrated "lewd behavior."
Some recruits thought nightly parties were virtually part of their training work. The Astra Way, they were told, meant "Work eight hours, party eight hours, sleep eight
hours."
Under Bildman, Astra USA said, it faced threats of ency's investigation of Astra.
"I couldn't tell the EEOC anything," said Nyree Lawrence, who sold pharmaceuticals in Clearwater, Fla., for two years. And she won't say why she left in July 1994. "I
could write a book."
Astra's code of silence has, nevertheless, been broken. For some who settled, international publicity surrounding Astra has created an opportunity to reopen their
cases. A group of six former Astra employees - two female sales reps and four male managers - sued in May claiming they were unfairly terminated after complaining
to Astra executives about harassment. Some also said they were forced to settle.
One plaintiff, Jennifer Shore, was 24 years old when she joined Astra and clearly enjoyed its parties, said coworkers who attended them. Shore has produced a note
she said Bildman sent her about their "rare and delicate relation." But in the suit, she claimed Bildman "surreptitiously" slipped drugs to her, leaving her "incapable of
completely and successfully resisting" Bildman's "extreme harassment."
MacLeish called Shore's allegations evidence of ridiculous charges being hurled against his client in a "lawyer-inspired media frenzy." MacLeish questions motives of
employees who settled and are now suing. "Now they're back and want more."
Shore, according to some employees who spoke only if their names were withheld, said she has claimed she was forced to settle after Astra threatened to bring
forward individuals who would claim she had a drug problem. Shore would not discuss her settlement.
MacLeish strongly denies allegations employees were pressured to settle. "All these people could've said no . . . and walked away," he said, noting some had lawyers
representing them. As for Shore's claims, he said, "What's the proof on these drugs? It didn't happen, and Bildman never threatened this woman."
While Astra USA's new management has begun repairing the damage at the company, some former employees remain bitter.
"I want some closure in this sad chapter," said Michael Tasos, one of the six suing along with Shore. "I want to sit across the table from" Lars Bildman "and tell them
what they did was wrong." To read previous Globe coverage and court documents and for extensive information on sexual harassment, go to Globe Online at
boston.com. Use the keyword: astra.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, 1. The Astra Way: Through long hours and a keen sense of how to motivate employees, Lars Bildman transformed Astra USA from a
struggling outpost into a $ 328 million subsidiary of one of Sweden's top companies. Along the way, he molded a new corporate culture, dubbed the Astra Way, that
came to represent both the company's greatest assets and its worst excesses, including the parties reportedly championed by Bildman (top). 2. GLOBE STAFF
PHOTO/TOM LANDERS / Astra USA expanded significantly during Lars Bildman's helm and moved into new headquarters in Westborough. 3. GLOBE STAFF
PHOTO/PAT GREENHOUSE / In the office of her attorney, former Astra employee Kimberly Cote describes how a supervisor would make sexual advances while she
was driving along her sales route. 4. LARS BILDMAN / Denies all allegations against him |
