I Can Has MBA?
Ladies and Gentelmen — welcome to President Mike Garrison’s West Virginia University.
If Friday’s story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is to be believed, Heather Bresch — Joe Manchin’s daughter, and childhood friend of WVU President Mike Garrsion — has been running around for almost 10 years telling people she has an MBA from West Virginia University, when in fact she had completed just over half of the required coursework. The Post-Gazette discovered this by making a routine phone call shortly after Bresch was promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Mylan Pharmaceuticals on October 2. Mylan is WVU’s single greatest financial donor.
But it gets better. On October 22, R. Stephen Sears, the — I’m not kidding here — MILAN PUSKAR DEAN of the WVU College of Business and Economics sent a letter to Admissions and Records ordering them to award the degree to Bresch retroactively. Six classes were added to her record, and grades were awarded for two more classes for which she had received an incomplete. WVU has, and continues to blow it off as a simple clerical mistake. Nothing to see here. Please move along. Also, there is a lovely piece of oceanfront property near Farmington I’d like to sell you.
But hell. To read the AP wire story from the Gazette (there’s a shocker), you’d think it probably was just clerical error.
Except that, other than the fancy new grades and the “degree” that WVU magically awarded Ms. Bresch retroactively, there’s absolutely no evidence that she completed the 22 hours left in her coursework. And here’s the kicker: there’s no record of her ever being in any of those classes AT ALL:
“Ms. Bresch’s name does not appear on the class rosters for five of the six classes that were added to her records, according to sources who viewed the documents. There is no class list for the sixth class because it was an independent study course. Her absence from the rosters indicates she was not registered for any courses after the spring of 1998, the point at which university records had shown she had stopped taking classes.”
There’s no record of Ms. Bresch paying for any of the classes missing from her record, either.
But whatever. Bresch offered as evidence that she attended the December graduation ceremony. Which of course, says nothing as to whether a person actually graduated. And there’s this chestnut:
“Among the more than two dozen members of the December 1998 Executive MBA graduating class reached by the Post-Gazette, including many who would have been in Ms. Bresch’s “cohort” of classes, no one could vouch for her being at the ceremony…One of those students, whose name appears on the class rosters for five of the six classes added to Ms. Bresch’s record, was certain Ms. Bresch did not complete the MBA program. He said he followed her progress because her father was well known — at the time Mr. Manchin was a state senator who had just lost his initial bid for governor.”
Look. You’re just going to have to read the entire article. Nearly 3 months in the making, it makes a rock solid case that Heather Bresch is flat out lying about having earned her MBA degree from WVU. What’s funny is that all of this could be put to bed if Bresch would simply fax a copy of her transcript — or even her grades from one of those semesters (I still have mine!) to the Post-Gazette. Which she of course, refuses to do.
Most embarrassing of all though is the implication that people at the highest level of WVU’s administration orchestrated the rewriting of Bresch’s records. It’s a big fucking deal. She should have had to earn her worthless degree, just like the rest of us.
And let me say, that to those of us who have followed the storied career of Mike Garrison, this just stinks of his handy work. After all, he’s the one who graduated from the College of Law “with honors.”
Tags: Heather Bresch, Mike Garrison
December 22, 2007 at 9:50 am
I second the recommendation that people read the entire Post-Gazette article. It’s the kind of journalism that is rare these days, and a revealing window into the world of WVU. An early prediction — the mucho evidence of the falsity of the MBA in question will be too much to be ignored by the stockholders and regulators dealing with Mylan, and she will have to find another job, maybe not real soon, though. The apparent coverup by WVU is the most interesting part of the story, and in the story the finger points to the Business Dean Sears. Also a huge embarassment for Provost Lang. Keep on this one Hippie Killer!
December 22, 2007 at 10:16 am
I pointed this out to several mouth breathers I know, and they are all of the opinion, “Yeah, it’s just a clerical mistake, WVU said so. Move along, nothing to see here.”
Of course, as you said, you have to read the whole article, AND pay attention to who says what. Othewise, your eyes start to glaze over a bit. But yes, there are too many “errors” that would have had to have happened to her, and her alone, OVER a period of a year, for this to happen. Too much for coincidence. As the guy in the article said, “One mistake, yes. This many, the odds are infintessimal.”
December 22, 2007 at 11:34 am
Hmmm. I had not heard of this, but thanks for bringing it here. King Joe rules all, huh? A sad reflection on not only WVU but the entire State as well.
December 22, 2007 at 12:00 pm
It is a sad story - but notice how the Gazette is so terrified of Joe Manchin that they are just going to let the Pittsburg paper rule this one. I mean honestly people, if it weren’t for outside media, where would we be? Don’t we deserve something better than the Gazette/Daily Mail bullshit.
Yes, it could have been a clerical error - but I don’t think so. Why let it drag on for a decade? Does she actually have a diploma? If not, why didn’t she call a month or two after graduation and get it? So, she went to the graduation..doesn’t mean she graduated. Get this - I have a Master’s degree and I decided NOT to go to the graduation. That said, I still got the damn diploma in the mail.
Also, when I applied to grad school, my undergraduate school said I hadn’t paid all my fees and wouldn’t release my transcipt. I called the school…the lady on the phone said it was a “clerical error” and fixed it automatically. I didn’t wait a damn decade. I didn’t need interference from a wealthy businessman, an academically corrupt dean, a soon to be fired Registrar, an inept - unqualified president or an all show and no bite governor. I just had it fixed over the damn phone because I HAD actually graduated and it was easy to see and prove. It was just that damn easy to prove.
The damn girl is lying. This incident is living proof how these people operate and WVU is third tier in every sense of the word.
December 22, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Obviously, this is the first “WVU Mylan Puskar Board of Regents Executive MBA” degree. The BOG will just have a conference call and make this new category up immediately. (Just like the Gov. Mansion preservation committee did (against the rules) before they knocked the hole out of the Mansion for the Xmas party tents.) I want a WVU Mylan Puskar Board of Regents Executive MBA degree, too! How much do I have to pay? Which Manchin or Goodwin do I have to marry?
December 22, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Betty Chilton is the head of the Mansion Preservation Committee. Wonder if she reads the vent lines?
December 22, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Betty must be sleeping with Joe Manchin. I don’t understand her desire, otherwise, to roll over for him.
December 22, 2007 at 12:53 pm
She was on the search committee for Garrison, iirc. She might be on the BOG too, I forget.
December 22, 2007 at 1:14 pm
I had to read the article twice to get all of the names and the timeline straight, and after doing so, it looks like the Post-Gazette has an ironclad case that a state university created a degree out of thin air for:
the daughter of that state’s governor,
the COO of that university’s biggest donor, and
the longtime friend of that university’s president.
That’s a pretty huge accusation, and if I were Bresch and I had actually earned the degree, I’d be scrambling to do whatever I could to provide evidence for the Post-Gazette. Especially since I’d be earning half a million dollars at a company that, according to the article, has caused Wall Street some concerns about “whether [it] has the management talent needed to make the acquisition [of Merck's generic drug arm] successful,” and because I was the head of the team working on that integration.
Trying to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, if it were actually true that this series of unlikely clerical errors really did take place, then there’s NO WAY that Bresch wouldn’t already have known about it. Think about it. If all of those errors had happened — six classes that she took were not recorded in the registrar’s records, two classes for which she earned grades were recorded as incompletes, she didn’t pay a $50 graduation fee (and note that they aren’t saying that is a clerical error — they said she did not pay it) — then how could she have gotten the degree? There’s no way that the transcript that she has in her hands doesn’t contain all of those “errors” as well — since the registrar is the one who creates the transcripts. And there’s no way that she could have an actual diploma. As Mountain Daddy said, she would have been making calls to find out what the hell happened. Also, if all of these errors actually did happen, it would take the university more than a few days to clear everything up. How the hell were they able to straighten all of this out in a few days?
The thing is, in a general sense it doesn’t matter whether or not she has an MBA. It’s not like a law degree, where if you are out practicing law without a degree you are breaking the law and you’d be in huge trouble. You’d be disbarred. (Leaving aside the handful of states where you can be admitted to the bar without going to law school.) In the business world, you don’t have to have an MBA. You don’t have to have any degree (just ask Bill Gates). So, as happens so often, it’s not the “crime,” it’s the cover-up. The scandal here is that people at the university bent over backwards, breaking their own rules and failing to follow their own protocols, to grant a highly-connected person a retroactive degree that by all evidence, she did not earn. They didn’t even consult any of the professors of her missing classes!
And another thing — Mylan may have violated federal law by filing a document with the SEC that says Bresch has an MBA. (The document is right here — filed on 10/5/07.) Maybe Mylan didn’t know that she didn’t actually earn the degree, but that’s hard to imagine. The article says she traveled extensively to California in 1998 assisting Mylan in litigation and that’s why she left school. I don’t see how she could be working for the company and then leave school about halfway through her MBA without her co-workers and superiors knowing about it. As far as lying to the federal government goes, a press release attached as an exhibit to an 8-K filing that erroneously states that Mylan’s new COO has an MBA is small potatoes, but it still may technically be a federal crime, if Mylan knew it wasn’t true.
Of course, as big a deal as I think this is, and as big a scandal as this should rightly be for a sitting governor, the cynic in me predicts that this will amount to zilch. We are in West Virginia, after all.
December 22, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Oh, something else I noticed that I know will get HK riled up — that 8-K filing to the SEC says that, in addition to 100,000 shares of Mylan stock, she is eligible for a discretionary annual bonus equal to 75% of her base salary — that’s $375,000 per year, folks. Bet she’s having a nice Christmas.
December 22, 2007 at 2:46 pm
“Officials also could find no record of Ms. Bresch paying for the classes that were missing from her record, this source said. Tuition payments are maintained separately at the university level, at the office of student accounts.”
There’s your smoking gun right there. Kinda buried in the article, but again, those records are maintained in a separate part of the University, and viola, no record of her paying for those classes. It’s like someone went to ALL the places that would have a record of anything having to do with those classes in question, and REMOVED her in all those different areas of recordkeeping.
Clerical mistake? Methinks not.
I mean, if she was IN those classes, and somehow, didn’t get a grade for them, due to some recordkeeping something or other, but the prof had actually GIVEN her the grade she earned, it just didn’t get to the registrar’s office for final “tally,” there’d AT LEAST be a payment record that she PAID for the classes with the bursar’s office.
No grades. Her name isn’t on the rosters of those classes. No record of payment for those classes. And no payment of graduation fees.
But she’s listed on a graduation program someone printed down at Kinko’s, and we are supposed to take that and her word?
Again, who the FUCK do these people think they are?
I wonder if a FOIA for the names of the professors of those classes would be the next step.
Oh, and on the PG article, on the left hand side, under the author’s little bios, there’s a link called “report card” you can click on to see the actual classes in question and the semesters involved.
December 22, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Raging Red, screw what W.Va thinks, this involves the SEC. This involves investors and management concerns and ratings on Wall Street. It matters. It really does matters. She didn’t do this because of what people in W.Va would think - she did for the people in New York.
This is crap (though I admire her balls.) I will not for vote Joe Manchin - even if I have to leave the ballot blank….I will not vote for him.
December 22, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I love WV (the state, not the school) but I think Joe is firmly in the realm of the untouchables. West Virginians absolutely adore guys like this - I think of A. James “You’re a Captain of the Ship of State” Manchin and how folks just gushed over that idiot. Or RCB - seriously, the guy could get caught having sex with a dog and get re-elected (I’m not trashing the Senator, just making a point). Blood is thicker than water, and Joe is now family to most folks, I’d bet. It does show why WVU is deep down third-rate, and that we have yet to get away from WV’s deep political corruption. Oh, and the fact that most of our citizens don’t have any respect for education will also make this a non-issue in the long-run. The whole thing is deplorable, and heads should roll, but they won’t. Hope I’m wrong.
December 22, 2007 at 6:45 pm
This never would have happened had they appointed a President with the proper credentials. This whole episode fits Garrison’s only credentials like a glove. Garrison should resign. Goodwin should resign. And Lang and Sears suffer the slings and arrows of their colleagues.
“Dorothy Parker” was right, there was a way to legitimize the degree in the way of the Regents BA. However, that would have taken time and caused some embarrassment to Ms Bresch. Instead, the whole university is called into question and made a laughing stock, just as it was in Garrison’s appointment. RESIGN GARRISON, RESIGN GOODWIN, GET SOME GUTS LANG.
December 22, 2007 at 9:20 pm
As I lay me down to sleep, visions of an MBA appear for me to keep.
Just when I thought I had been caught, WVU said they had just forgot.
And to our surprise the records did appear, and do believe, I have no fear.
Daddy will talk to the Gazette and the story will appear, when everyone has gone for the New Year.
December 22, 2007 at 9:34 pm
http://www.wvsao.gov/vista/scr/warrantglb/inv_detail.asp?invoice=I007719249&name=MANCHIN%20J%20NATHANIAL
http://www.wvsao.gov/vista/scr/warrantglb/inv_detail.asp?invoice=I007907464&name=MANCHIN%20J%20NATHANIAL
December 22, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Hope the people don’t mind paying this for the “peoples house”. I wonder if Randall Reid Smith picked these out.
http://www.wvsao.gov/vista/scr/warrantglb/inv_detail.asp?invoice=I007835130&name=MANCHIN%20GAYLE%20C
December 22, 2007 at 10:47 pm
From the Chronicle of Higher Ed:
http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=3681
December 22, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Ms. Bresch, being an executive of a public company and required to sign SEC forms, could be subject to a shareholder lawsuit for misreprenstation of her credentials. There is certainly enough credible evidence in the PG story to at least get the attention of an attorney on this case. This will force the disclosure of necessary documents and testimony under oath from all invovled; Ms. Bresch, Mr. Garrison, Mr. Lang, Mr. Sears, Mr. Taylor, Ms. Neil, Mr. Speaker, etc.
December 23, 2007 at 7:35 am
MarionCountyMafiaFan
Can you look in 1998 for Kirby, Heather M. ?????
December 23, 2007 at 11:04 am
Anon, the records available online only go back to 4/1/02.
December 23, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Are you sure Betty Chilton is on WVU BOG? Cappellanti (who is also on Gov. Pres Board and WVU BOG) and Carbone had better start gently pointing out to to their Italian cousins, travel companions and shopping buddies, the Manchins — well, the LAW.
December 23, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Betty isn’t on the BOG any more, but she was at the time Garrison was confirmed.
December 23, 2007 at 2:57 pm
For any society to thrive, it must have certains well-established pillars to maintain a community.
1. A free and energetic press. We’ve lost the battle on this one. Chilton’s papers are not going to cover this story in any manner and have let down their end of the bargain. I am caceling my subscription. The paper is a failures and it hurts us all.
2. An energetic government with clear distinct partisonship. We’ve lost the battle here, too. I don’t care what anyone here thinks of the Republican Party in general or Vic Sprouse in particular, but this is their moment. Vic should call for the attorney general to investigate this matter. This is a career move for Vic - and it would be the right thing for him to do. Love him or hate him, this is his time.
3. Seperate branches of government - the state legislature has invested billions in our flagship university. The university is to be our guiding light - in research, education, culture, health, community support, etc. It is the thing we are to trust the most; that trust has been violated. It is time for Aaron Allred, the speaker of the house and the senate president to call for a legislative investigation in this matter. This is making national news - that third tier’s reputation is seriously at stake.
4. An engaged citizenry. We cannot let this go. We need to write to the paper and demand more and better coverage of this matter. We need to write to our representatives, alumni, and to anyone who will listen that this is serious and should be thoroughly investigated. We cannot sit around and wait on the SEC, the federal government or other state’s media to save us.
Everything is at stake here - if the direction of this state is everything. How will handle this matter will reveal the future of this state to me. I know that sounds grandiose, but think about it…………………………….
December 23, 2007 at 3:05 pm
So Scott…….. 25 Rhodes Scholars 18 Truman Scholars and 30 Goldwater Scholars. Sure sounds like WVU is 3rd rate? How many scholars does your school have?
Keep in mind all of these awards are given by people outside of the, as you say, corrupt world of WV politics.
December 23, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Don’t feed the trolls.
December 23, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Mr. Killer,
Do you think WVU is 3rd rate?
Lege
December 23, 2007 at 3:52 pm
No, I don’t.
That’s why I so deeply resent WVU’s hiring of a less than 3rd rate, utter joke of a President who apparently sees no problem in GIVING an MBA to the highest bidder, as if it were a complimentary football ticket.
WVU has a lot of work to do if it ever wants to become a world class university. Shit like this will set us back decades.
December 23, 2007 at 3:57 pm
If someone hadn’t provided that link to the Post-Gazette story, I would have sworn that HK was making this all up. Honestly, this is unbelievable to me. I just can’t grasp it.
December 23, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Mr. Hippie,
So what do you know about Higher Ed? Unfortunately, the public funding is dwindling and the need for seeking private donors is vast. The connections President Garrison has (which you seem to be jealous of) are exactly what we need to lead WVU into the future. I’m sorry you have a personal vendetta against every person in the leadership of WV. Do you like any of the leaders in our state?
This is a great forum for debate!
Lege
December 23, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Mr Lege,
“Being in the pocket of” is one form of connections I guess. This is phase I. The Davis College people should be afraid, very afraid, for the WVU Farms. One payoff down, how many to go?
December 23, 2007 at 6:19 pm
More than you know, apparently.
December 23, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Yea they should be afraid because the road needs built.
December 23, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Any one who attended WVU in the mid 90’s will KNOW that in 1994 the student billing came online - and was followed in the summer of 1995 with registration AND records being online. Online at that time was the STAR interactive voice response system (telephone). Class rosters AND grades for the terms in question ARE available. But hey, MBA = Manchin Business Award. Garrison is Manchin’s puppet and will kiss his a** every chance he gets. Any one who thinks Garrison is good for WVU should have their colon cleaned with draino.
December 23, 2007 at 8:54 pm
I have an idea—we can solve the healthcare crisis in this country, simply by having Governor Manchin call WVU president Garrison, and award about 50,000 MD degrees to anyone who is willing to practice medicine in any underserved area of the USA. Forget the time consuming studies, sleepless nights, difficult exams—get your Manchin Executive M.D. right away!
It is time for the good people of WV to awaken and see how corrupt, crooked and slimy Joe Manchin is. You know, he is the nephew of A James Manchin, the assh0le who lost the state retirement millions and millions of hard earned dollars. We may never recover from that idiot. Lets pray we do not let Joe Manchin drive the entire state and it’s higher educational system into the ground. Impeach the crooked bastard.
December 23, 2007 at 8:56 pm
I think what is so troubling here, is that Garrison/Manchin/Puskar/Bresch only see this as a problem because the media/and us see it as a problem. To those guys, this is just the cost of doing business.
Ms. Bresch will have to answer to the SEC. Mr. Garrison will have to answer to his peers nationally. He is in the job less than 100 days and is now in the national media. And for what? Did he secure a new research grant….great new professors….retained more low income or minority students?
No! He took an illegal action at the request of an inept governor or business man.
HK is right….what more can we expect?
December 23, 2007 at 11:28 pm
All these corrupt and inept WV political/business machine types now swarming toward WVU like moths to the flame for power, glory and $, here’s a Xmas wish that they might learn from getting spanked (probably for the first time in public) in the the spotlight in the NATIONAL press. And that they learn that the way things are being done, have always been done in WV, aren’t the way they should be done. Really, they’ve never known anything else. They need a good spanking. Perhaps a new respect for ethics, morality and the law could trickle down throughout the WV political/business machine. Here’s wishing for a holiday miracle. Or at least more well deserved spankings in the press.
December 23, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Well put A Xmas Wish.
What is so ironic is that one of the first acts of Joe Manchin as governor was to “toughen” the ethic committee and to increase its funding by an additional one million dollars.
The nerve.
December 23, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Stop bitching and start a revolution
December 24, 2007 at 6:01 am
This story has legs. You can say what you want about WV politics but Ms. Bresch’s actions and apparent crimes are more than likely a federal offense. Mylan is a public company and she has apparently misrepresented her credentials to the shareholders.
To the earlier point this isn’t between Morgantown and Charleston although there are some interesting aspects to the relationships. This is between Mylan HQ and Wall Street. She wanted to have the street cred to make it to the top and took an apparent short cut that was outed by the Pittsburgh PG.
I am sure everyone involved has retained counsel at this point and this will play out over the next several months as resignations are tendered and investigations proceed. The question everyone is asking themselves is “how high and how wide does this go?”
The deafening silence coming from the President’s Office can only lead to the kind of speculation that puts a billion lumen light on Mike Garrison.
December 24, 2007 at 10:29 am
“Lege Says:
December 23, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Stop bitching and start a revolution”
Don’t be so eager. We might just hang you first.
December 24, 2007 at 11:18 am
Well Lege - what difference does it make where I went to school or how many “scholars” those schools may have had? We’re not talking about them - they haven’t cheated, WVU did. All of that doesn’t mean squat when the academic process is subverted by the political. And yes, WVU is 3rd rate in several areas, and it sure looks like its headed that way in several more - starting with the business school. Are you implying that what they’ve done is OK because its outweighed by all the good? Are you sure those awards are un-tainted?
December 24, 2007 at 12:21 pm
On a side note, I thought it was just the law school that fell to third tier?
December 24, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Scott,
Ask the Rhodes, Truman, and Goldwater Foundations if the awards are tainted (Aside from the few scholars that used HGH). I can’t really speak for them, but what I can say is the WVU is BY FAR the best University in the state of WV. If WVU is 3rd Rate then by God I would hate to see what Marshall is. 6th/7th? Or do they rank schools that low?
Lege
December 24, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Marshall? Who the hell said anything about Marshall? Quit trying to turn this into some comparison of wvu v marshall.
Like I said, we may just hang you first.
December 24, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Lege, get is right. No one said third rate. We said Third Tier. That is WVU’s ranking. Getting it right. It is not a personal slam…and, son, when you’ve graduated thousands of students and that is all you’ve got to show for it, then I’d shut the hell up.
Third Tier. Do you understand the difference? This is a national ranking. We are not making this up.
Don’t you get our anger? We want WVU to be better…not worse…that is why we are upset. You need to calm down and think first. We are all here on the side of WVU….and I am a proud Marshall graduate. I still want WVU to be the best it can be.
December 24, 2007 at 8:30 pm
It is being noticed in some quarters by people interested in Mylan stock Note, on the 21st (same day as the PG story, Mylan announced its Annual General meeting for the Spring with a December 31st date for stockholders to place items for discussion. Any stockholders out there? Time is short! http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_M/forumview?bn=12242
December 24, 2007 at 10:40 pm
So, just throwing this out here…..or there……maybe MU is the now FLAGSHIP U OF WVU, NO? WOULD mu HAVE ALLOWED this?
December 27, 2007 at 1:44 pm
The SEC will not get involved if WVU states (as it has) that she earned the MBA. The organization who may have some say, however, if there indeed was wrongdoing, is the AACSB. The AACSB provides accreditation to the WVU MBA program. Perhaps the AACSB Maintenance of Accreditation Committee should be made aware of the controversy. The members can be found here: http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/Committees/mac.asp
If you really feel the issue should be looked into, send some emails to the committee members providing links to the PPG (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07355/843469-28.stm) or Chronicle (http://chronicle.com/news/article/3681/west-virginia-u-accused-of-rewriting-well-connected-officials-academic-record) articles.
P.S. I noticed that the Chronicle article has comments posted from both HK and the illustrious Peter Gozinya, PhD. I always listen when the good doctor peter speaks. HK…only sometimes!
December 27, 2007 at 2:42 pm
MU wouldn’t have done it. Of course, its run by academics, not political hacks and the gov’s chogey-boys.
December 27, 2007 at 4:00 pm
No wonder WVU law school has fallen to 3rd tier. They can’t even cover their asses. Steve Goodwin, Chair of WVU BOG today says in DM “he expects the board to discuss the topic at its next meeting, which isn’t until Feb. 15 in Morgantown. However, Goodwin noted the 17-member panel probably would not take any official action on the matter one way or another.” Anybody else outraged by this statement? I mean not even the obligatory, “we’ll at least attempt to look like we are looking into it” clause. So, am I reading THE RECORD, correctly (or can one read THE RECORD correctly? a rhetorical question)? In that Joe Manchin appoints WVU BOG members? Didn’t Lara Ramsberg (on Joe’s behalf) wax poetic on some of the new appointments as superb talents and human beings in THE RECORD lately? Does Joe appoint MU BOG’s? Methinks, not. Has the governor always appointed WVU BOG? When did it get written in as the gov’s god given right to appoint WVU cronies to WVU BOG? Is this, his “divine right of kings” clause in his job description, new or old? Tellingly, Lara Ramsberg defers all questions to WVU. Smart move on her part. Wonder how she’s going to spin doctor this one?
December 28, 2007 at 10:19 am
Did Steve Goodwin et al on the WVU BOG read the same Post-Gazette article that I did? A “recordkeeping mishap”!!?? Where is the shareholder lawsuit? The SEC doesn’t have to take action at this point. However, if I own stock in a company and the management team represents itself by way of their academic credentials I would want that to be accurate and not find out my COO slept in a Holiday Inn last night. Put this issue to rest once and for all by showing us the transcript and initiating a full investigation. The people of West Virginia, the institution of WVU, the current students and faculty and the alumni deserves as much.
Also, Mr. Goodwin saying the the 17-member panel probably would not take any official action on the matter one way or another is OUTRAGEOUS but expected. His comments in the referenced article lead me to conclude that his leadership of the WVU BOG should be challenged by people of the state.
December 28, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Who is Stephen Goodwin to Carte and Kay and Joe Bob? Who are the 17 (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil) WVU BOG members? Where are they from, where do they work and WHO appointed them (like we don’t know)? Is the part about Garrison reporting to Heather during the transition true? Let’s write HEATHERGATE, the opera, a tragic farce. You can’t make this shit up more outrageous.
December 29, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Money / power appears to buy anything. Sorry to hear about Heathergate. WVU and Mylan are in this together and both will lose as a result. WVU should fire all involved.
December 29, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I’m suprised somebody in the investment community hasn’t shone more light on this MYL management controversy — at a minimum this is the kind of story I might expect to see CNBC’s Mike Huckman (network’s pharma industry reporter) take a swing at. With many on Wall Street already edgy about management’s ability to successfully integrate acquisitions (that in less than year have more than doubled the size of the company), it would be an understatement to say MYL’s credibilty with investors is squarely on the line.
December 31, 2007 at 11:41 am
Rage Against the Manchin(e).
This whole situation is CALM LIKE A BOMB.
The employees of Mylan should rise up, question management and TAKE THE POWER BACK.
The shareholders of Mylan should act like BULLS ON PARADE.
The national press should rise up and shine more light on this story and force Ms. Bresch to TESTIFY.
The students of WVU should SETTLE FOR NOTHING short of a full investigation and ultimate accountability.
The people of WV should KNOW YOUR ENEMY.
Bresch, Garrison, Lang and Sears should all SLEEP NOW IN THE FIRE.
January 6, 2008 at 6:54 pm
In a society that reads, considers, ponders, and reasons, Manchin and Garrison would be run out of the state on a rail. They are sick. They are liars. They are dishonest. They are political nerds who maneuver by tricking people. They twist words for their own benefit. They should be brought to justice. They should be hanged at sunrise. They should go straight to hell and burn there, forever. Good riddance.
January 18, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Lets call it what it is:
Manchin-dishonest crooked politician
Garrison-half ass lawyer, half educated moron
Lang-liar
Sears-paid off sneak
Bresch-someone who never earned an MBA
Anyone who votes for or supports any of the above-idiot.
Period.
January 20, 2008 at 12:07 am
Did you know that the SEC makes it very easy to file a complaint on their website. I filed one two days ago about Mylan Pharmaceutical misrepresenting the qualifications of an executive officer. If enough people do this, someone might have to investigate.
January 22, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Folks—I just heard the Great Governor Manchin filed papers in the Secretary of State’s office today, to run for the same office again in the upcoming election. For joy, for joy. Now I can get the Ph.D. I have always wanted!