Hero CEO Gives Away $60 Million to Employees

[Astronuc]

We've heard a lot of negative news about CEOs recently, but there are a lot of good CEOs and some really great ones!

We need more folks like CEO Leonard Abess, Jr.!

Miami banker gives $60 million of his own to employees
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/904842.html

. . . .
After selling a majority stake in Miami-based City National Bancshares last November, all he did was take $60 million of the proceeds -- $60 million out of his own pocket -- and hand it to his tellers, bookkeepers, clerks, everyone on the payroll. All 399 workers on the staff received bonuses, and he even tracked down 72 former employees so they could share in the windfall.

For longtime employees, the bonus -- based on years of service -- amounted to tens of thousands of dollars, and in some cases, more than $100,000.

. . . .

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=12252053

 

[rootX]

Long term thinking (in terms of benefits /profits) :)

 

[Oscar Wilde]

It's actually great to hear about these stories because, in general, everyone is so quick to criticize CEOs because " They're fat cats with golden parachutes and only care about money!". I find it refreshing that corporate elites do have responsibility and make moral decisions.

 

[Astronuc]

President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Paul Levy may have found an alternative to layoffs.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/12/a_head_with_a_heart/

. . . .
Paul Levy, the guy who runs Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was standing in Sherman Auditorium the other day, before some of the very people to whom he might soon be sending pink slips.

In the days before the meeting, Levy had been walking around the hospital, noticing little things.

He stood at the nurses' stations, watching the transporters, the people who push the patients around in wheelchairs. He saw them talk to the patients, put them at ease, make them laugh. He saw that the people who push the wheelchairs were practicing medicine.

He noticed the same when he poked his head into the rooms and watched as the people who deliver the food chatted up the patients and their families.

He watched the people who polish the corridors, who strip the sheets, who empty the trash cans, and he realized that a lot of them are immigrants, many of them had second jobs, most of them were just scraping by.

And so Paul Levy had all this bouncing around his brain the other day when he stood in Sherman Auditorium.

He looked out into a sea of people and recognized faces: technicians, secretaries, administrators, therapists, nurses, the people who are the heart and soul of any hospital. People who knew that Beth Israel had hired about a quarter of its 8,000 staff over the last six years and that the chances that they could all keep their jobs and benefits in an economy in freefall ranged between slim and none.

"I want to run an idea by you that I think is important, and I'd like to get your reaction to it," Levy began. "I'd like to do what we can to protect the lower-wage earners - the transporters, the housekeepers, the food service people. A lot of these people work really hard, and I don't want to put an additional burden on them.

"Now, if we protect these workers, it means the rest of us will have to make a bigger sacrifice," he continued. "It means that others will have to give up more of their salary or benefits."

He had barely gotten the words out of his mouth when Sherman Auditorium erupted in applause. Thunderous, heartfelt, sustained applause.

. . . .

 

[phreak]

The CEO of FedEx, hit hard like every company by the recession, could have forced a whole lot of people to be layed off. Instead, he took a 20% pay cut, gave his senior management a 10-15% pay cut, and cut the wages of everyone else by 5%. It's responsible and admirable thinking. Sometimes everyone has to take a pay cut, but it's most honorable and beneficial to the entire company to start from the top and work your way down, instead of the opposite direction.

 

[waht]

This guy even tracked down former employees to give them bonuses. It's not even about the money, it's the thought that counts. Instead of a lavish bonus you could send a bottle of wine with a card to an employee and have the same effect.

Respect and honor.

 

[rootX]

Reminds me of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Schindler"

Priceless!

 

[waht]

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started the HP company back in 1930s that specialized in electronic test equipment, are notable for creating the "HP way." That is a working atmosphere, where employees were constantly being rewarded, and praised. That is why the equipment produced from 1940s to 1990s is one the highest quality ever made, not matched by any competitive company then, and sometimes now. But then in 1990s the electronic test equipment division was sold off and taken over by Agilent which killed the "HP way" on day one, and outsourced a lot of stuff to Malaysia. Now they produce equipment that outright sucks, and is of much poorer quality.