The Pfizer Exec And The $300K Helicopter Bill
82 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // July 17th, 2008 // 11:33 am
Some people drive to work. Others take a commuter train, subway or bus. There are myriad ways, after all, to travel to Pfizer’s corporate headquarters on East 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan. One exec, however, preferred helicopter rides and that expense, among others, caused a dilemma for ceo Jeff Kindler who, for a time, wanted the drugmaker to pay for such luxuries, our sources tell us.
In the midst of cutbacks that are costing thousands of Pfizer employees their jobs, Kindler late last year believed various expenses incurred by several execs were justified. One example - the weekly helicopter commute Mary McLeod, Pfizer’s senior vp of human resources, took to and from her Maryland home, sources say.
Executive travel on corporate planes is regularly charged to companies, of course. However, several members of Pfizer’s staff pointed out that not all of the expenses could be justified as wholly related to business activities and the info should be reported in the annual proxy. This left Kindler with a difficult choice - disclose such payments at a time when Pfizer is laying off employees or require the execs to reimburse the drugmaker for a portion of the expenses that couldn’t be justified.
In the end, several execs were handed bills. McLeod, for instance, was asked to reimburse Pfizer nearly $300,000 for her helicopter commutes, our sources say. A Pfizer spokesman declined to discuss specifics, but did send us this statement: “Across Pfizer, every expense is being reviewed. From the manufacturing floor to the executive suite, we are committed to leveraging every dollar.”
Insider
LOL
You made my day!
Tom Gerber
Wasteful spending of company funds by executives should NEVER be allowed. Fire the woman and save her salary as well as the helicopter expense.
One of the causes of such excesses is the practice of the “Soviet” ballot for board members. By that, I mean that management gives us no real choice of who to vote for as a board member. It is “take it or leave it.”
Stockholders should have the right to write in names of people they want to vote for to be on the Board of Directors.
DOWN WITH SOVIET-STYLE BALLOTS
Monyonyo
Has she paid the bill yet? Please keep us posted.
nick
soon the senate will be calling if this continues.
Pembroke Flaptwaddle
What people should really be concerned about is the lawyer running the company. He’s publicly stated PFE will not go the big acquistion route, even in the face of Lipitor costing the company a quarter of it’s business revenue when it goes off patent. That, and the recent failure of the Lipitor look alike which was abandoned last year, and you have to wonder why it makes sense to have an appraently very conervative (business wise) lawyer running this company. Shouldn’t we be looking at Cos like Wyeth and such for possible takeovers? Or are we just going to keep downsizing and trying to get ahead by cutting back.
insider
That’s almost as bad as Pfizer renting Six Flags Great Adventure in new Jersey for an employee outing. Supposedly, the cost was 2 million dollars for the day.
Bad LeRoy Brown
Now we know why PFE has a five year downward trend resulting in their current very low price. The whole management team needs to be taken out behind the woodshed where they need to be thrashed with a cat-o-nine tails till they see the light of stock holder value. Perhaps they need to have their salary’s cut based on the stock price fall.
With layoff’s - a senior VP of HR is not needed. They obviously feel a sense of entitlement. Perhaps they will be taken over…
Justice in MI
So does Pfizer at least own the helicopter?
And where is Tinkerbell when you need her?
Pat Herod
Not surprised. I’m sure if she were asked she would say words to the effect, “doesn’t everyone get personal helicopter service?”. These dopes just don’t get it, and NEVER will!!!
stumpywest
It’s this kind of nonsense that has me liquidating my PFE stock. Dumped another 20,000 shares this morning. I pity the poor sucker (s) that bought those shares. Is the CEO still going out with his drugs reps on sales calls–as was reported earlier this year in the WSJ? Management is lost without a clue.
walterwlaszkiewicz
THE board just does what they want and the hell with the share holder THEY NEVER HEARD OF HIGH SPEED TRAINS OR PLANS .. I WOULD LIKE TO LET THE BOARD KNOW THEY HAVE THEM SHAME ON PFE FOR ITS STUPITY> ONE UNHAPEY SHARE HOLDER .
curious
Why wasn’t this disclosed in the company’s proxy?
jack b
Why don’t Pfizer grow up tie their wages
to their earnings start with a low base
Irving Rothe, MD
I guess I won’t complain so long as their dividend rate remains the same, but how long can they continue this senseless course before the bottom drops out? Maybe I’d better re-evaluate my holdings!
Ross
Perhaps Kindler’s chief of staff should be questioned on this blunder. The company’s corporate aviation department reports to her. Ed, why not spend a few more days digging into this business? Seems pretty interesting.
Marguerite Amerman
Dear Insider,
Pfizer is a great Company to rent out Great Adventure for their employees. It shows that they care. More companies should think better of their colleagues to do this.Anymore,VP’S and the like care more about making it to the top of the ladder and leave the hard task of making their other workers leading them to success.
Struggling retiree
This makes me sick as I sit here reviewing my 401K that has lost 40% of its value after I retired. I foolishly retained a large amount of Pfizer shares!!!!!
Jeffrey Clark, CEO of Beaker.com - The Online Community for Life Sciences Professionals
Most surprising to me, that no one has mentioned the culprit in this story. The Head of HR?! When these stories get loose, in any industry, isn’t it usually the SVP, Business Development or Global Head or Marketing that makes these blunders. No, no, no! At Pfizer, its the Head of HUMAN RESOURCES.
If anyone should have more sense about setting an example…
Insider #2
Interesting. I believe this expense issue would be grounds for termination at any other level. Zero tolerance policy. Apparently not everyone has to certify they understand this. There appears to be different standards at different levels. Love this company but seriously….what kind of message does this send to employees and shareholders. When budgets are tight and things like this (which do not benefit customers) are done without oversight we truely have lost our direction.
Canadian retiree
As a former financial vice president of Canada’s largest firm of retail pharmacies, and as a most unhappy Pfizer shareholder, several things are clear to me.
Firstly Mr.Kindler does not yet have the message that he is only in the high income position he’s in by the grace of Pfizer’s shareholders…and that his only mission is to inprove Pfizer’s earnings and woeful stock performance. It’s still just a game to him.
And imagine if you would, the senior V.P. human resources…responsible in part for setting the tone on containing expenses, demonstrating just the opposite example.
Unconsionable.
Both should be perrimanded by those that they report to.
snugpharma
Ed, Tip-Hat to you, picked it up on Mike Huckman’s blog. Can we expect Pfizer to pay for the People Decontamination Chamber which will be required by Mary McCloud
Nathan
I have to agree with Marguerite - the renting of Six Flags is completely different. It’s perfectly appropriate to do such employee-moral events. God-knows Pfizer employees need a moral boost these days… I sure wish my HR department would be creative and rent out a local amusment park for team-building excersizes.
Monyonyo
This should be national news if it’s true.
Obviously someone was not practicing what they preach.
When required to take a compliance course at Pfizer, we were taught not to do anything that promoted personal gain. We were also asked to ask ourselves, “How would your actions look if printed as headlines in a newspaper.”
Now, granted, it would be different if she used the helicopter for meetings. However, using it as transportation to get to and from work from Maryland to NYC was a bit too obvious, in my opinion.
However, why didn’t anyone deny her personal use of the helicopter? Let’s not put ALL the blame on her….someone was allowing this to happen.
Paul
An “employee-moral event”….give me a break. How about a pipeline event for God’s sake.
Former Employee
Wow! If Kindler doesn’t fire her something is totally wrong at Pfizer. I watched this company over the years go from being one of the most caring about employee welfare to being totally ruthless for even the most minor of rule infractions, mostly at the design of HR and Legal….. How can ANYONE, no matter what their position in the company ride a helecopter to/from work and expect the company to foot the bill? I’ve seen reps fired for $5 errors on expense reports…other than the amount, how is this any different?
PFE Stkowner
How insensitive of her to expect PFE to pay for her commute. It should be her privilege to relocate near to the work and save the unnecessary expenses.
KG
“How insensitive of her to expect PFE to pay for her commute. It should be her privilege to relocate near to the work and save the unnecessary expenses.”
Mary McLeod! It’s you!
Nice to see you comment on this issue…
Almost a Shareholder
This is why the board members need to be tested for drugs. Only someone on crack cocain could do this. Grasso would be proud of em though. Maybe they can put Grasso on the board and he was not even charged with rape. This should have been printed on April Fools Day, at least then I could laugh it off as a big joke. Trouble is , its not a joke.
A Shareholder but not for long ...
I am appalled by this flagrant abuse. How can this behavior be tolerated when so many have lost so much in share value.
If it was my company someone would be fired …
Stockholder
How did Kindler get a 10% payraise ($1.4 million) for loosing 1/3 of the value of the stock when MANY of the reps who bring the money in to pay the executives wages didn’t get ANY payraise. Pfizer proclaims to be a “performance based” company yet it’s executives get raises regardless of their performance! Different standards at different levels, Absolutely! As a stockholder I am outraged that he would have the audacity to accept it.
Monyonyo
The people at the top of the Pfizer totem pole seem to set bad examples for the employees.
Kindler’s raise was totally uncalled for during the fall of the stock. Who polices this sort of entitlement?
All those people seem to do is give each other raises by sitting on each other’s board. Who is protecting the stockholders at Pfizer? Now I also hear that Pfizer has laid off many of the senior sales reps. Perhaps their sick way of saving money in pension and healthcare costs.
Then you read about the CEO’s ten percent raise and the head of HR commuting from Maryland to NYC via helicopter. Did she really expect this to be part of her benefit package?
Entitlement. Greed. Pfizer needs a new coat.
RaceFan
So there is NO ONE living anywhere in the entire new york tri-state area qualified to be an SVP of HR??
Justice in MI
I am amazed at the number of comments on this thread, and their intensity. Of course, I understand the outrage in the context of lay-offs, etc. But measured against the issues we usually discuss - which impact lives in direct, tangible ways - this is tangential at best.
I say this because I think it is potentially a “teaching moment.” At least as reported, the McLeod saga is a story of overweening entitlement, obliviousness to the big picture, and a kind of reckless disregard for consequences (in this case, financial ones).
The folks who are reacting so strongly are almost all industry people (many we don’t usually hear from or who are using new monikers). This is not surprising - it is a direct insult to a company’s reputation, its shareholders, and its employees.
But here is the point: When those of us on the outside - as stakeholders - feel most outraged, we are responding to exactly the same kind of obliviousness, entitlement, and reckless disregard on the part of senior decision-makers. And doesn’t it make sense that the same combination of cowardice and presumption that leads to helicopter commutes could also lead to many of the other things that consumer/pts get worked up about here.
So my point is - we are, at bottom, all on the same side.
Monyonyo
I understand the Pfizer Executive Leadership Team is allowed 20 hours personal use of the Pfizer air fleet.
How many hours did she rake in? Did she commute everyday? For how long?
If she used the helicopter over 20 hours then she abused her prevlidge. Wouldn’t this be considered a breach of company policy? I believe Pfizer has fired many people who abuse corporate policy.
Cardinal
There is no more useless position at Pfizer than that of Sr.VP of HR! As a matter of fact, there is no more useless department than HR at either HQ or the individual sites. That is, assuming there are anymore sites left after the self - important geniuses have applied their scalpels to the locals who made their egos,perks,and bloated salaries possible. If anyone of the supposed ” Leaders ” could be bought for what they’re worth and sold for what they think they’re worth, we could all make a hell of a profit. A lot more than owning this dog of a stock for which the dividend will soon be greater than the share price!
Doc
This whole fiasco brings to mind a quote by Charles DeGaulle.
“The cemeteries are full of indispensable people”
Who do these executives think they are? The joke is if these ‘key employees’ dropped dead, the company would keep right on going. Who knows maybe for the better.
Unbelievable
How ironic.
PFE bullies their vendors and their employees and then wastes money this way. Where are the shareholders, the board?
Anyone from corporate governance awake…?
Monyonyo
Apparently there are different standards at different levels.
TTT
She will probably find a way to eliminate $300,000 worth of jobs and say that she has offset the cost so she owes nothing. As a pfizer employee that has been taken to task for not saving enough money, I find this typical of Pfizer management at all levels.
Been There
Why should this surprise any of us? Pfizer has coasted for a long time using unethical and illegal business practices worldwide. What you get away with on the outside is bound to be reflected on the inside.
Its Corporate Compliance team is charged with coverting violations up, sharing with the Justice Department only that which can’t be hidden, promising to police itself. That cozy relationship has resulted in business as usual in those same situations.
Managers are rewarded for not getting caught and are quickly shuffled when they are too close to being so; case in point, take a look at the history of the current leader of Pfizer Animal Health.
Kindler, Reed, et al; shame on all of you. I do hope that shareholders and the Justice Department wake up one day. The Board is hopeless.
Heliman
Mountains out of molehills are being made here. Let’s look at the bigger picture: it’s only $300K. It costs a company $300K to employ a person who gets paid $150K. $300K is a single international patent application. This is pocket change for PFE.
It’s going to cost PFE probably $300K to clear up this stupid mess that should have never been reported.
The notion that this is some sort of egregious expense that, if eliminated, will save PFE is ludicrous.
Huh?
Anyone who does not consider these actions by Pfizer an “egregious expense,” I sure would not want that person working for my company.
harpy
How many laid-off employees = $300k? Yet it was considered worthwhile to lay them off. As far as I know, HR doesn’t make money for a pharma company, the researchers and chemists who are laid off do. Bit of a false economy, sweetie, what?
Historian
Hey, let’s wake up here folks. The $300k Pfizer’s Senior VP of HR is required to pay for her helicopter commute is only the TAX LIABILITY. Who cares what it cost her personally for this pretentious luxury, Pfizer will somehow make it up to her and assuredly she still remains far better off than the literally tens of thousands of people she has laid off since her tenure as Pfizer’s HR head. With a TAX LIABILITY of $300K, this preposterous and absurd benefit still cost Pfizer and its shareholders an additional $600K plus. The TOTAL = 900,000 to 1 million dollars so this woman can make it to work in style and without the typical hassles New Yorkers encounter with subways, trains and taxis on a daily basis.
Question: Would you be willing to take other modes of transportation to allow another 15-25 people to maintain their personal security and retain their jobs to support their families …or are you too important to care about these little people?
Why am I unable to find this expenditure disclosed anywhere in Pfizer’s proxy statement? There should be a long line, a very long line, outside Pfizer’s chairman’s office, headed by the SEC, the US Justice Department, Senators, Congressmen, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, 60 Minutes, CNN, MSNBC, and many other investigative committees and agencies. By the way, where is Pfizer’s board in all this? Most likely plotting their own next increase or company-sponsored trip, or perhaps yet another salary increase for Kindler, all the while extremely concerned about the 35% decline in their own personal stock holdings and options since Kindler has been at the helm.
Unconscionable doesn’t even describe this unethical and immoral situation. Criminal would be more appropriate, and why isn’t someone looking into this aspect of Pfizer’s actions? I find it most curious that this woman, Mary McCloud, Sr. VP of Pfizer’s Human Resources, terminated her previous position with Schwab the exact same day as Schwab’s previous president.
HISTORY SHOUD DEFINITELY REPEAT ITSELF AT PFIZER … TODAY!
sickened
As a person in HR in Pfizer I am sickened by this. Even if the copter is company owned and we are paying the pilots whether they fly or not (leaving fuel as the incremental cost to the company) - I cannot believe the poor judgment display here by both Kindler and McCloud on the basis of optics alone! HR itself just went through a significant headcount reduction, budgets (never big anyway) have been slashed as well - we have to justify order of office supplies. The hubris pointed out here is sickening.
Jack2
I agree with you JIM. While I find this story annoying, I find it roughly a Tier 3 story on a five-point scale of Pharmalot newsworthiness. There’s certainly nothing here about hiding safety data. I also found the somewhat-similar story about the woman at Mylan who faked her MBA more annoying.
Pfizers global revenue stands around 50 billion. This $300k perk, according to my math, comes to 0.0006% of annual revenue. Perk aside, even if we estimate the total helicoptor flights cost $1 million, then that still only represents 0.002% of Pfizer’s revenue.
I don’t want to downplay the outrage - it is annoying. I might feel more strongly if I worked for Pfizer. I also suspect that people might feel differently if this particular exec didn’t come from HR - the dept that lays people off.
Perhaps Former Pharma Marketing EXEC can comment on his experience with this perks?
-Jack, not an executive
Jack2
And let’s also remember, this story came out because Pfizers cracking down.
Justice in MI
“Unconscionable doesn’t even describe this unethical and immoral situation. Criminal would be more appropriate, and why isn’t someone looking into this aspect of Pfizer’s actions?”
Holy cow. I refer again to my comment above. When folks here use such language to describe behaviors that take or physically ruin lives, they are often responded to as anti-pharma crazies. Here we are talking moolah, but folks are calling for an armed invasion.
My point, again, is that we are on the same side, and responding to the cowardice, obliviousness, and reckless disregard of the same folks.
jOE gIGLIO
i worked for pfizer labs for 42 years and worked for the convention services and as an ambassador for 13 years for a total of 55 years.
not only did this v.p. of hr took advantage of the company.other executives are ripping off the company with stock opitions.not the ones you have to pay for but the ones that are given to you at no cost.
Another complaint is hank Mckindle 200million retirement package.the stupid executives who sold the consumer division.
Paul
Do as I say and not as I do.
“Acting with Integrity —
Questions to Ask
Asking yourself these questions can
help determine if a course of action
is ethical:
■ Are my actions legal?
■ Am I being fair and honest?
■ Am I acting in accordance with
the Pfizer Values? The Leader
Behaviors? The standards set
forth in this Blue Book?
■ Would failing to act make
the situation worse or allow
a “wrong” to continue?
■ How would my actions look if
they were reported on the front
page of the newspaper?
■ If I were testifying in court and
asked to explain what I had done,
how would I respond?”
Amy
Interesting that Pharmalot gets fifty comments over a helicopter but when the fact that this or that drug is killing people, a chilling silence comes over the land.
And you all wonder why public opinion of Pharma is so low.
Justice in MI
Hi Amy - If you read my comments above, you’ll see I disagree about “chilling silence.” Just a somewhat different group of folks who do much of the talking.
But the important thing, in my view, is that the cause of the talking comes from much the same place.
Latent Observer and Possible Idiot
What seems to be missed here is that fact that the CEO chose to bill executives for unjustified use of services like this rather than disclose how much is being spent on services like this. … Or did I read that wrong?
Sending a bill to the executives is NOT a play to cover unjustified costs, but rather a play to avoid admitting how much PFE is spending on these kinds of costs. It doesn’t matter if they ever collect from the execs. What matters is that the stock-holders and employees (who are usually stock-holders) don’t see the amount.
It must be huge! I mean, consider sitting down with your executives and they all agree to foot the bill for unjustifiable expenses just so the stock-holders won’t see how much the justifiable expenses cost.
Ugh. Or maybe I just don’t get it.
Ger
Amy, I don’t think you are clued into what gets reported and discussed on Pharmalot. What the hell do you think “Enbrel, Alzheimer’s and a controversial doctor” story was all about. (Dr. Edward Tobinick, dermatologist) http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/07/enbrel-alzheimers-and-a-controversial-doctor/
Maybe I'm The Idiot
I thought Amy understood completely! Patients are dieing every single day because because drug companies hide data. The industry crowd calls everyone clueless or idiots for questioning industry about this data hiding or spining. Now all the sudden industry people see a story about an exec taking helicopter rides and its like the woman actually stole your paycheck for the week. Never mind everyone who has been harmed or died, thats acceptable.
Broke Shareholder
It aint the money!!!!!
This is about how it looks. They are laying off people left and right, people cant pay their mortgages and bills. It show her arrogance and disrespect for people. This is a person who is heading their HR department and should be at least be leading by example. SHAME ON YOU!!
Maybe I'm The Idiot
Right, the dead and disabled are paying their mortgages! But because industry has been able to cover all the harms up, it looks good so there is no problem.
Jaynesday
Broke Shareholder and others,
I feel bad for you folks. It has to be demoralizing to say the least and I agree with you about how it looks. A top level leader sometimes is actually relativly limited in what they can do for a company monitarily (except in the case of laying people off).
Setting a corporate consciousness is a subtle way that a top level leader can really affect the daily decisions in a large company. Little things like being concerned about an expense or showing how you feel about the customer, can cause those that work for you to have a similar attitude in the hundreds of decisions that are made throughout the company. It can cause a huge ripple affect for good or in this case for bad.
Here at the Pharmalot yard party we discuss the “attitude” of pharma relentlessly. It is so good to hear from those that are actually in the trenches, especially for me since I don’t work in the industry but have been affected by the product.
I appreciate your honesty and feel for your sense of confusion brought about by your leadership. I hope you can find it in yourselves to be more than your leadership has shown themselves to be. We all depend on it.
Tonio Merimbe
Imagine this, 60 days before you turn 65 at the New Pfizer you get put on a trumped-up performance improvement plan and your life is made miserable for more than 60 days so the company can save on severance when HR terminates you. This is just one of HR’s crass M.O.’s since Mary McLeod came to Pfizer. Jeff knew her at GE and she has brought in Neutron Jack’s ways, cutting head count at lower levels in carefully planned Exit Waves while Jeff continues to hire expensive executive buddies to bolster the top echelons.
Good luck to you, Sickened
“Sickened” tells us Pfizer HR just went through a significant headcount reduction. It is obvious they did not cut nearly deep enough. Perhaps they should have started at the top of HR where behavior and values are modeled, rather than the typical bottoms up reduction where they have to eliminate many people to get to their dollar reduction (such as $300k). I hope you survive any HR cuts, Sickened, as you seem to be one of the few HR people at Pfizer with any moral fiber. Quite a club those senior execs have going for themselves. You’d think Pfizer was a family owned company. Then again, no family would waste their own money in such fashion and not be held accountable.
Dr. Moral
What is going on with this story? Has it been investigated by news reporters? Does this employee still have her job when others would have been “pfired” over such decadent ways of spending Pfizer money.
I believe it’s time for a new helm at Pfizer. 20 hours of free personal use of a company plane or helicopter does not compute in this d economic climate. Drugs prices are overinflated and taxpayers are picking up a great deal of the cost through Medicare, Tricare, and other government programs.
Companies like Pfizer need to drop their prices. Pfizer has lined their pockets with government money for way too long.
Shouldn’t Lipitor be generic by now? From my understanding Pfizer “paid off” companies who were in the process of providing us with a generic atorvastatin compound.
Now Pfizer has the head of Human Resources commuting to work via company helicopter. Wow, this should be a great news story.
Why hasn’t anything been reported? Or have I missed it.
Lightening
$300K here, $300K there and pretty soon you’re talking real money.
This situation points directly to a key factor in pharmas public deception over the years. The cost of developing new drugs.
Yes, R&D is expensive, however, the companies have such fat profit margins, this amount of money is looked at as miniscule. Try that in virtually any other industry where profit margins are 1/10th or pharmas - it doesn’t happen nearly as often.
R&D costs is a smoke screen for stupid, ignorant, careless spending.
The day of reckoning is rapidly approaching for the industry - and none too soon.
Insider 99
Pfizer does own the aircraft though they are “owned” by one of their many shadow companies. Such assets are rolled into Plant & Equipment on the annual report. Helicopters = 2 Sikorsky S76C+, a top-of-the-line machine. Jets = 1 Gulfstream G550 (G-V). THE very top-of-the-line. A 14-seater complete with a flight attendant so they don’t have to pour their own coffee. Also 2 Embraer ERJ-145 jets. There was a Boeing Business Jet though I’m not sure if it’s still on the books. There may be additional aircraft though I cannot confirm at this time.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s when PFE was a great place to work (and the stock was splitting on a regular basis), the annual company picnic at Great Adventure was fantastic for morale. Employees had to schlep thru the Safari in their own cars or a company-supplied bus but we didn’t mind. Senior execs viewed the Safari from the air in a PFE helicopter. A nearby field was used for takeoffs and landings and special permission had to be obtained from the FAA for the day.
The PFE logo used to be on all company aircraft until a jet was spotted at small airport near a Superbowl in the late 1970’s and a large shareholder kicked up a big fuss at the annual shareholder meeting. Aircraft abuse is not a new thing…
Dr. Sal Giorgianni
Insider 99
The reason the logos were taken off were for security reasons.
Corporate security
Security reasons, sure that makes sense. Pfizer wouldn’t want a furloughed employee to see Pfizer’s Sr. VP of HR on her helicopter commute. That wouldn’t look good! Without the Pfizer logo, people might think it is only the US Secretary of State.
Just A Thought
Amy, I thought the same thing at first. Then it occured to me that, if PFE had been in my retirement portfolio several months ago, I most likely would not have known them to be anything but a reputable company.
Whatever the reason for distaste- employees cringing as their peers lose their jobs (and retirement bennies?), shareholders losing their butts, or consumers losing their well being- this company will remain on as much of a downslope as the many people who depend on them to act appropriately. There is always some kind of justice along the way.
I’m having a particularly hard time right now (seizures for the first time in years). They have the recipe to make me well and chose not to use it. They also have the recipe to fix their own financial and corporate illness, but seem to have gotton away with so much for so long that they maybe forgot how to play the game properly.
Like the N.E. Patriots when the refs started actually calling their fouls, there was a collective dropping of jaws on a field. Pfizer can’t be protected forever. It starts looking bad for the FDA, who surely doesn’t want the heat, just as the NFL refs were catching heat for their “missed” calls on the field.
It all comes around.
Monyonyo
In my opionion, the only reason why Pfizer dismantled the company logo from their air fleet, was obvious.
Before long Pfizer will tell it’s sales reps not to wear their corporate/logo name badges in coffee shops or anywhere else other than physician clinics. For security reasons? No, because if someone is demonstrating bad behavior they do not want it traced to Pfizer.
And there's more.....
Has anyone checked on the other Pfizer executives who do not live in their “business location” and travel home every weekend? Does the head of HR at PGRD (picked specifically by Mary McLeod) pay for her weekly flights home to Houston or does Pfizer pay that also? I’m sure her bos (MM) would approve the expense.
Doc
Dr. Sal,
Please you jest about removal of logos for security. With the general public’s gauntlet in taking commercial flight, CEO security is best served by US Air et al.
Spanky
Just to let people know Pfizer canceled the outing at Six Flags for their employees. Pfizer is going to become an acquisition company and you can’t believe a word that Kindler says. Wait until they start to cut the dividends…then you’ll hear people scream.
mikebob
Pfizer has been laying off people so tinker bell can take helicopter rides to work. If this kind of unnecessary spending continues get ready for more layoffs. Pfizer will have to start selling off divisions to survive like they did with their consumer products division to J&J. I am glad they made tinker bell pay the $300K for the bird, next they need to start hiring execs willing to work at half the pay and twice the hours like the rest of the country does. Get rid of these bozos
Sarbanes Oxley
Whatever this excessive and inexcusable sum, $300K or $1M, wouldn’t this money be better spent on corporate compliance training for Pfizer’s Executive Committee and Pfizer’s Board? They might include some integrity training in there as well, which supposedly is the foundation for SOX in the first place. Sarbanes-Oxley was enacted to protect shareholders from this type of reckless spending, arrogant greed and concealment. Where is Pfizer’s compliance board/committee? Where is Pfizer’s CFO in all this? Where’s the SEC? Anyone who holds a company’s stock based on the quality of its leadership would surely have dumped this stock a few years ago, and it obviously is only getting worse.
Dennis McDougal
Absolutely amazing! I wonder if Pfizer ever looked into her past employment, i.e. Bechtle, Charles Schwab, etc. and discovered why she really left those organizations? Might be in for some surprises….
Laid off HR Client Consultant
As one of the (un)lucky HR Client Consultants recently laid off to make way for the new HR model, this news takes the cake. How can you retain credibility in the midst of these tough economic times and preach about “leveraging every dollar” with a straight face when the head of HR is spending $300K on her commute to and from work? Please explain that to my and many other families still reeling from our recent job loss. And those colleagues still employed are being asked to cut back on expenses, prioritize clinical studies and do the work with less resources/staff…in short, sacrifice a little for the greater good of the company. While the senior staff are still enjoying these perks? Unbelievable.
A Fan
Mary M was fired from Schwab, Cisco and GE. Apparently Jeff didn’t check any refferences. Would have been easy to find, was very public in San Francisco.
Mary's Fan
Pfizer should update Mary’s bio on their website: Mary McLeod is Senior Vice President, Worldwide Human Resources, for Pfizer Inc. She has more than 25 years of experience working with companies to accelerate growth by enhancing the effectiveness of organizations and their people….
Consider adding: “In her spare time, Mary enjoys spending time with her dogs, weekending in her home in Maryland and exhilirating (and free?) helicopter rides.”
Hugh Jorgan
This news made me shart my pants! No suprise these no-talent assclowns on top are driving this groovetrain to the ground! Move over McDonalds man, bring in the Don!
Nice work Pharmalot
Nice work Pharmalot for surfacing this. What else lies behind the confines of the executive offices of PFE, the world’s leading drug maker – apparently only a leader in sales, obviously not in corporate compliance and integrity. This is likely only the tip of the iceberg! Keep digging Pharmalot.
Wally
If I was in her role, I’d be doing the same. We all do it. Who hasn’t taken a pen home from work accediently. First a pen, then a free ride home. You wonder what other perks these VP’s were milking of the share holders.
In the end, it seems once your a VP at a Fortune 100 company, there always is another another corporation willing to hire you.
Dennis McDougal
Mary McLeod was fired from Schwab, literally escorted out of the building by security. The stories of her antics are well known to many Schwab employees who were there when her “swan song” conference call was abruptly ended by corporate counsel and she was escorted out by security. Yes, I worked at Schwab at the time. I’m confused about how much these corporations run by such ever so smart people, end up hiring people such as Ms Mcleod who have no scruples whatsoever and repeatedly get fired. Is there any actual background checks on these clowns, or is that just for clerk-typists?
leaving a wake
Pharmalot should look into the internal wake felt by those who surfaced this internally. Word has it they are no longer with the company - victims of telling the emperor they have no cloths.
Not shocked at all
Spanky–you are WRONG RE the outing at Great Adventure–it’s still on.
RE the nature of this story…SO not surprised. Of course, this story has been carefully expunged from employees’ daily “news roundup.” Note that Pfizer also recently put in a severe travel restriction on budgets. So, it looks like Ms. Thing got her $300K personal air taxi while people are being forced to use their own cars to drive from the New London facility to NYC and vice-versa or miss potentially useful industry conferences.
And yes to whomever said that the new specious “60 day” review policy is being used as a very big club to beat out anyone who costs too much or who dares to question the almost totalitarian emphasis on ideology vs. performance.