A little over a year ago I read about the Digital Forsyth group in the paper and was pleased to find some really interesting information on the site. Today I discovered a Flickr group that Digital Forsyth has started that I hope will expand their portfolio of interesting Winston-Salem and Forsyth County images as local Flickr members contribute their own pics to the project.
Today's episode of "Executive Compensation in Winston-Salem" focuses on the company that at one time employed both my parents when they were students at Wake Forest. It's the company that pops to mind when people think of business in Winston-Salem. Why yes, it's Reynolds American Inc., and I have to tell you that what the execs at Reynolds are paid makes the folks I've already profiled at WFUBMC and Novant look like they're in the minor leagues.
My source for this information is the most recent proxy statement posted on Reynolds' website. If you've never looked at one of these you should check it out: they spend page after page explaining their rationale for executive compensation. It's really kind of overwhelming. The numbers listed for each executive are for 2007.
Susan Ivey, Chairman of the Board, CEO and President of Reynolds American Inc.. She was paid a salary of $1,190,350, granted stock awards of $3,114,421, received non-equity incentive plan compensation of $4,243,000, pension value and non-qualified deferred compensation earnings of $688,848 and all other compensation of $231,241. Total: $9,467,860
Dianne Neal, Executive VP and CFO of Reynolds American Inc. She was
paid a salary of $553,250, granted stock awards of $926,711,
received non-equity incentive plan compensation of $1,340,325, pension
value and non-qualified deferred compensation earnings of $120,231 and
all other compensation of $341,593. Total: $3,282,110
Daniel Delen, President and CEO of RJR Tobacco. He was
paid a salary of $760,000 and a bonus of $125,000, granted stock awards of $1,743,949,
received non-equity incentive plan compensation of $658,000 and
all other compensation of $212,532. Total: $3,499,481
Jeffrey Eckmann, RAI Group President. He was
paid a salary of $629,250, granted stock awards of $985,602,
received non-equity incentive plan compensation of $1,401,325, pension
value and non-qualified deferred compensation earnings of $887,663 and
all other compensation of $269,821. Total: $4,173,661
Tommy Payne, Executive VP – Public Affairs of Reynolds American Inc. He was
paid a salary of $383,725, granted stock awards of $493,984,
received non-equity incentive plan compensation of $730,064, pension
value and non-qualified deferred compensation earnings of $43,139 and
all other compensation of $227,425. Total: $1,878,337
For today's episode of "Executive Compensation in Winston-Salem" I'm looking at the folks at that megalopolis otherwise know as Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
My source for the these numbers was Guidestar
and the numbers listed come from the most recent 990listed
for each organization on the site. So if the most recent 990 is 2006
then I've listed the 2005 pay. Here we go:
For WFUBMC I looked at many of the executives team listed on their website's leadership page.
FYI, one of the challenges with looking at WFUBMC's information is that they've recently restructured, some execs have retired and others have been promoted. Since the numbers are from 990s filed in 2006 (so they reflect 2005 compensation) I'm going to insert some of the retired executives' data for a frame of reference. For the others I'm using their current titles but the pay reflects their pay in 2005 in what might have been different positions.
Donny Lambeth, Listed on website as President (Interim) and COO of North Carolina Baptist Hospital –
In 2005 he was paid $388,150 and had $45,625 in benefits and deferred
compensation. Total: $433,775.
Gina Ramsey, Listed on website as VP of Financial Services and CFO of North Carolina Baptist Hospital –
In 2005 she was paid $311,303 and had $38,970 in benefits and deferred
compensation. Total: $350,273.
Len Preslar, No longer with Baptist but in 2005 he was the CEO. He was paid $609,240, had $59,668 in benefits and deferred compensation and he had $8,823 in expenses. Total: $677,731.
Douglas Edgeton, Listed on the website as the Executive VP and COO of WFU Health Sciences and the President of Piedmont Triad Research Park. In 2005 he
was paid $414,087, had $52,103 in benefits and deferred compensation
and he had $9,532 in expenses. Total: $475,722.
Richard Dean, No longer with WFU Health Sciences but in 2005 he was the President and CEO.
He was paid $854,153, had $179,625 in benefits and deferred compensation
and he had $7,282 in expenses. Total: $1,041,060.
Want a career in sports? Want to make next to nothing but get class credit while working with Winston-Salem's Carolina League team recently renamed the Dash? Available as of January 19, 2009? Then I have the job listing for you. Here's what you'll have to do:
Thanks to the Winston-Salem Journal's coverage of the court hearing about Triad Appliance Center we now know that the store is owned by The Langley Group Inc. If you remember my earlier post, the one piece of information I couldn't gather by doing online searches about the business was the business name for the owner. I'd read that Thi Alderman, the ex-wife of Brad Ellison who was mentioned prominently in the articles about the customers' problems with the store, was the owner but I couldn't find her name anywhere in the state corporation filings.
Searching for The Langley Group Inc. on the North Carolina database of corporations I immediately found an active listing for The Langley Group Inc. that showed the business was formed in October of 2003, that John L. Barber is the listing agent, that the registered mailing address of 155 Sunnyknoll Court, Suite 200, Winston-Salem NC 27106, and that the principal business address that is the same as the store. As an attorney for Wells Jenkins Mr. Barber is also the registered agent for 64 other companies so there's nothing odd about that at all.
The annual report filed with the state in 2004 shows Thi Ellison as the President and Treasurer and a Brian Ray as the Secretary. The 2007 annual report shows Thi Alderman as the President and Treasurer and again shows Brian Ray as the Secretary.
A quick search on Google for "Brian Ray Winston-Salem" turned up an article at the Home Builders Association of Winston-Salem website about a 2006 fundraiser that was co-sponsored by Triad Appliance Center. There's not a whole lot to be made of that other than the notion that until the store closed last week most of the information available about the store seemed to indicate it was a successful local company. As recently as November of this year Thi Alderman was interviewed about the sales tax holiday and she had this to say:
Thi Alderman didn't know what to expect when the state switched on its first sales-tax holiday for energy-efficient appliances.
But after three days of "being overrun with customers" at Triad
Appliance Center in Winston-Salem, Alderman said yesterday that she
would be glad for the holiday to arrive more than once a year.
"I'd say we had four times our normal traffic during the tax-holiday
period" of Friday through Sunday, said Alderman, the owner of the
appliance store.
"People were buying front-load washers like crazy, including some of the $2,000 models.
"My wish for the next tax-holiday period is that with appliances
being such big-ticket items, many consumers need more than just three
days to shop," Alderman said.
So we're left to wonder what happened. What role did Thi Alderman's ex-husband Brad Ellison play in all this? As I outlined in the earlier post you have to wonder how he can claim ignorance when he owns the land and building that houses Triad Appliance Center and he acted as the sales person for at least some of the customers who filed complaints against the business.
According to this article in TechJournal South the Piedmont Triad Entrepreneurial Network is shutting down because the entities that funded it have decided to go in a different direction.
The foundations invested $2.75 million in the organization, which was founded in 2004.
"They decided we were not a priority," Obermeyer notes. "It had nothing to do with our results."
He admits the early stage companies PTEN backed are slow on job creation. Many are still in proof of concept…
The companies it backed have raised an additional $8.8 million.
PTEN also distributed $635,000 in prizes to 35 companies through
its annual PTEN GAP business plan competition and did it a unique way
intended to train the companies to deal with investors.
"We gave them the money in tranches and they had to meet
milestones," explains Obermeyer. If they won $30,000, we gave them
three tranches of $10,000 each. If someone was working on a patent, we
would want to see a patent filing."
PTEN also launched the first nanotechnology conference in North
Carolina and ran it for three years. It received national press
coverage in the industry publication, "Smalltimes."
It held an investor conference in August. It had companies from
Memphis, Charlottesville, the Research Triangle and elsewhere present
in additon to Triad firms…
"We worked with other organizations such as the NC Council for
Entrepreneurial Development and the Piedmont Angel Networks. We were
doing all the right things," says Obermeyer.
"My question now, is who's going to do this work?"
This is definitely a negative development for the Triad. While groups like PTEN may not create lots of jobs in the short term they tend to foster the development of the kinds of companies that attract dynamic people who in turn accelerate innovation that seeps into the surrounding business community. In other words they create energy that attracts innovators and builders and those are exactly the kind of people we need in the Triad right now. I think we have plenty of bankers and lawyers, but we're hurting for true entrepreneurs.
BTW, anyone else see opportunity to fill the gap here?
Those of us old enough to remember the late '70s will remember the phenomenal success of prime time soap operas like Dallas. I always figured that one reason Dallas did so well is that the economy truly sucked at the time and watching the over the top narcissism of the Ewing brood allowed most of us to escape our own miserable lives. That era was followed by the real-life over the top narcissism of the 80s and exemplified by Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, which was further proof that as a nation we just love to see how the other half, er 1/100th lives. Thus I figured it would be interesting to look at our local big-wigs to see what they make, if not how they live.
Today I'm looking at the folks at one of our biggest local employers: Novant.
My source for the these numbers was Guidestar and the numbers listed come from the most recent 990 they have listed for each organization on their site. So if the most recent is 2006 then I've listed the 2005 pay. Here we go:
For Novant I looked at the executive team listed on the last page of their 2007 annual report. FYI, there are other high paying execs that aren't included but you can find them if you sign up for a free Guidestar account and look at the 990s.
I would also like to note that I might have missed some compensation. There are several related organizations bundled under the Novant umbrella and executives are compensated by different organizations. As you'll see I found that one executive was compensated by two different organizations. Anyway, here's what I found:
Paul Miles, President/CEO of Novant – In 2005 he was paid $1,486,990, had $331,163 in benefits and deferred compensation and $15,344 in expenses. In addition Forsyth Medical Center Foundation also reports three years of unvested deferred awards of $99,960 in 2004, $104,550 in 2005 and $94,606 in 2006. Total without the deferred awards: $1,833,497.
Greg Beier, President/CEO of Triad Region (Novant) Forsyth Medical Center – Was paid $825,767, had $382,251 in benefits and deferred compensation and $16,644 in expenses. In addition Forsyth Medical Center Foundation also reports three years of
unvested deferred awards of $58,800 in 2004, $63,150 in 2005 and
$58,365 in 2006. Total without the deferred awards: $1,224,662.
Jacqueline Gattis, Chief Administrative Officer of Novant – In 2005 she was paid $303,125, had $96,229 in benefits and deferred compensation and $17,000 in expenses. Total: $416,354.
Dean Swindle, CFO of Novant – In 2005 he was paid $682,255, had $114,031 in benefits and deferred compensation, and $13,909 in expenses. Total: $810,195.
Carl Armato, President/CEO of Presbyterian Healthcare – In 2005 he was paid $683,022, had $81,190 in benefits and deferred compensation and $73 in expenses. In addition Presbyterian Medical Care Corporation also reports three years of
unvested deferred awards of $17,581 in 2004, $26,910 in 2005 and
$35,995 in 2006. Total without the deferred awards: $764,285
Stephen Wallenhaupt MD, Chief Medical Officer of Novant – In 2005 he was paid $395,522, had $26,727 in benefits and deferred compensation and $3,692 in expenses by Presbyterian Hospital. In the same year he was also paid by Novant Health Inc.: $88,692 in pay, $35,771 in benefits and deferred compensation and $3,574 in expenses. In addition Presbyterian Medical Care Corporation also reports three years of
unvested deferred awards of $26,950 in 2004, $28,190 in 2005 and
$25,512 in 2006. Total without the deferred awards: $553,978
T. Hayes Woollen MC, President of Novant Medical Group – In 2005 he was paid $101,357, had $47,471 in benefits and deferred compensation, and $3,692 in expenses. Total: $152,520
Ed Cone points to an article at Bloomberg about the Supreme Court's decision to allow smokers to sue tobacco companies over the marketing of "light" cigarettes. Ed also points to a page at Reynolds' website that is dedicated to litigation.
According to the article some analysts were surprised at the decision, having predicted that the tobacco companies would prevail, but they still don't consider the ruling much of a game-changer. On the other hand lots of anti-tobacco folks are thrilled (see excerpt below). I have a feeling that the people most thrilled are the lawyers on both sides; they'll be able to pay for their kids', grandkids' and great-grandkids' Harvard educations with the fees from these lawsuits:
The ruling surprised some industry analysts, including
Morgan Stanley’s David Adelman, who had predicted an industry
victory before the high court heard arguments. Still, Adelman
said cigarette companies retained “very, very valid and
effective defenses” to the suits.
No Turning Point
“I don’t think this is a turning point for the plaintiffs
in either lights litigation or tobacco litigation generally,”
said Adelman.
Anti-tobacco advocates hailed the ruling. “It’s a very
historic day in the field of tobacco litigation,” said Ed Sweda,
an attorney at the Tobacco Products Liability Project at
Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. “There was this
dark cloud hanging over all these cases up until today.”
Cigarette companies face about 40 similar suits, Sweda said.
Smoking foes say Philip Morris and other cigarette makers have
long known that smokers compensate for reduced tar and nicotine
levels by inhaling more deeply and frequently.
An Illinois light-cigarette suit at one point threatened
Philip Morris, the nation’s largest tobacco company, with a $10.1
billion award before it was overturned.
The suit before the justices seeks to recover the money
Maine smokers spent on Philip Morris’s Marlboro Lights and
Cambridge Lights through November 2002, plus punitive damages. A
federal appeals court in Boston had said the suit, which invoked
a Maine unfair trade practices law, could go forward…
Philip Morris also argued that lawsuits would interfere with
the Federal Trade Commission’s oversight of cigarette testing and
its policy of encouraging companies to market low-tar brands.
Stevens rejected that argument, saying the FTC “has no
longstanding policy authorizing collateral representations”
based on the testing method used by cigarette makers. Thomas
didn’t address that question in his dissent.
The FTC last month withdrew its endorsement of the four-
decade-old test that lets cigarette makers claim some brands
contain less tar and nicotine. The test method is “confusing or
misleading to consumers,” the FTC said in a statement then.
“For consumers it’s a major victory,” Jonathan Leibowitz,
a Democratic FTC commissioner said of today’s high court
decision. The ruling reaffirms that “states are full partners”
with the FTC in protecting consumers against deception, he said.
The case is Altria v. Good, 07-562.
Richard Craver did a follow up piece for the Winston-Salem Journal about the goings-on at the Tourism Development Authority and it is interesting to note that while things have been quiet since the stink-up last summer a lot has been going on behind the scenes. One part of the article caught my attention in particular:
Kaplan plans to recommend that the board outsource some of its
marketing efforts as a way to reduce administrative costs. He
acknowledged that full-time jobs likely would be cut in the process.
McCoy vigorously fought Kaplan on this issue.
"I don't share the opinion that the TDA is the most cost-effective
source of bringing tourism to Winston-Salem and Forsyth County," Kaplan
said.
However, Kaplan is not clear of potential conflict in this request.
J.D. Wilson, a co-chairman of an arts-council fundraising campaign,
also served as Kaplan's campaign manager for his race for commissioner.
In February, Wilson urged the authority to provide grant money for a
projected $1 million campaign over three years by Mullen, a marketing
company, to brand Winston-Salem as the "City of the Arts." The
authority provided a smaller amount toward the request, citing as one
reason that the arts venues don't contribute significantly to putting
guests into local hotel rooms.
Kaplan also supported Mike Horn, a partner in the public-relations
company of Horn & Stronach, as a nominee for an authority board
seat. Kaplan paid Horn & Stronach more than $17,000 for campaign
work in his run for the county commissioners.
You don't have to read between the lines to see that Kaplan is going to push for downsizing of the staff which is currently at 15 full time positions. Honestly there are functions in any organization like the TDA that can be effectively outsourced, particularly in marketing, communications, event management and back office support like bookkeeping, accounting, auditing, etc. But if you cut back too far you end up paying an opportunity cost because you don't have enough hands on deck to really make things work.
I spent five years working with a non-profit as a consultant and as time passed I handled more and more on the organizations behalf as they cut payroll in order to survive a rather serious budget crunch. It was a lot easier to pay me a flat fee than it was to hire and fire people. But, when I decided to move in a different direction I walked away with all the relationships with the businesses they were doing deals with (I acted as their Director of Business Development on contract). Sure I left behind my records, but because I wasn't an employee and I didn't have a staffer working with me there was literally no one there with even a semblance of a relationship with the businesses so the person they hired had to start from scratch and it's hard to say how much that has affected their operations.
Now if the TDA's board really thinks they are overstaffed then by all means they need hire a professional executive director (or president or whatever you want to call the position) that can come in, evaluate the situation and then provide the board with a road map for getting the job done. If that person thinks it takes 12 people then so be it, but if that person thinks it will take 20 then the board should try and find a way to help meet that need. Also, if that new person feels the existing staff isn't up to the job then the board should provide support as current staff is replaced with new blood. In other words the board's job is not to involve itself in day-to-day management, but to provide oversight and general direction on behalf of the citizens and their elected leaders.
And as for whether or not the TDA is the most cost-effective way to bring tourists to Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, I have to respectively ask that if it isn't then why the heck do you have the office at all? I think Mr. Kaplan might be implying that it's better to utilize existing organizations like the arts groups, but it seems to me that those groups have a much broader mission than encouraging visitors. Do those groups really care if audience members come from Walkertown or Washington, DC? No, they just care about creating art and putting butts in seats no matter where those butts come from. If travel dollars are going to be granted to those groups then some very tight strings need to be attached that mandate those dollars be spent on developing festivals or other events targeted to broad audiences, and not for general operating funds.
I do believe that a central development operation is key for any city or town, and I think it's a good thing that Kaplan stirred this pot because we're talking more about economic development via tourism as a result. I'm not saying I agree with his methods necessarily, but I do think it's a good discussion to have. Once they finish this part of the process I think there are some very large issues they need to address in order for Winston-Salem to generate more travel revenue. Those include:
Triad Appliance Center made the news last week because it shut its doors and put a sign up saying that they were closing due to an illness in the family. Later a different sign was on the door saying that customers could contact Brad Ellison Appliances to get their appliances, but according to the woman interviewed in the WXII story Brad Ellison Appliances was telling Triad Appliance customers who'd already paid for their appliances that they'd need to pay again.
In a later WXII story it was revealed that the owner of Triad Appliance Center was Thi Alderman, who is the ex-wife of Brad Ellison, he of Brad Ellison Appliances. This got my curiosity up so I decided to do a little hunting and pecking online.
First I searched the North Carolina Secretary of State database of corporations by company name and no active companies named Triad Appliance Center popped up. Next I searched by registered agent and that's when I found Brad Ellison Appliances Inc. of Mocksville which was originally registered in 2000 and filed papers to dissolve the business in September, 2006. I couldn't find a mention of Thi Alderman or Thi Ellison anywhere in the state database.
Next up was a good old fashioned Google search. Most of the results were Yellow Pages-type directory listings but on the second page of results I found a listing on a site called Coltera that listed Ellisons Triad Appliance Center and gave the same address as the address for Triad Appliance Center. It also had this tidbit:
ELLISONS TRIAD APPLIANCE CENTER is in the Electrical Appliances, Television and Radio Sets industry in WINSTON SALEM, NC. This company currently has approximately 100 to 250 employees and annual sales of $10,000,000 to $24,999,999.
If Coltera's data is correct then the store had a significantly larger operation than you'd guess by looking at the store.
Next I decided to look up the property records for the store. The owner of the land is listed as Ellison Brad Properties LLC and it shows the same address as that shown on the dissolved corporation of Brad Ellison Appliances Inc. of Mocksville and a company that is currently listed by North Carolina as Brad Ellison Properties LLC. I'm assuming that the county has the names "brad" and "ellison" backwards on the property database. So, Brad Ellison owns the land and store, but doesn't own the business.
Unfortunately the county doesn't provide it's business name database online so I can't seem to find the ownership information without going down to the registrar's office. Still, it's funny that I can't find any record with the state of a Thi Alderman or a Thi Ellison as an owner of any business, yet I can find her ex-husband as an owner of an apparently defunct appliance business and the land and building that Thi Alderman's business is housed in.
As I mentioned above, in the earlier WXII story a customer named Lisa Johnson was interviewed and she said that Brad Ellison was the salesperson who originally sold her the appliances at Triad, and yet he was also the person who offered to try and make things right when he opens up a new appliance business in a couple of weeks. The reporter, Jermont Terry, also interviewed Ellison and he claimed that although he owned the land he was not the owner of the store and was in fact owed money by the store owner, aka his ex-wife. He also said he had no idea why the store wasn't open or delivering the merchandise that customers had paid for.
In the later WXII story they say that customers went to court and secured an injunction against the business and that Thi Alderman was escorted by county deputies to the building to unlock it and refused to comment at the time. There was supposed to be a hearing this morning (Monday, Dec. 15) so maybe many of the questions I'm about to ask will be answered, but in the meantime here's what I'm wondering:
Befuddled 