Cogswell
Left Diamond in 2006 Due to "Fundamental Differences"
Diamond Glass president Bill Cogswell left the Kingston, Pa.-based
company in April 2006 "due to fundamental differences with
the strategy, with the style [of current management]," he told
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware during an April 2 hearing.
"Frankly, a series of events occurred relative to other personnel
and management changes at the company that I fundamentally had some
difficulty with," he said. "Our president resigned, our
then-current [chief executive officer (CEO)] called me and let me
know that he was tendering his resignation. He was my direct boss
at the time." (CLICK
HERE for related story.)
He continued, "The current owner and then-chairman of the company,
Ken Levine, had brought in not too much earlier than that a new
[chief financial officer] that he in turn intended to make the new
president and CEO of the company. I had some fundamental differences
with the strategy, with the style, and, frankly, at that point,
went to [Levine] when he made it clear that he was going to make
this person and another person CEO and president of the company.
I went to him and said, 'You know, I'm not real sure that we ought
to be working together on a go-forward basis. Let's just go ahead
and be big boys and girls and just part ways.'"
Eight months later, Cogswell said, the CEO and president were put
on leaves of absence (CLICK
HERE for related story), and at that time, Levine called him
and asked him to meet with him about returning as president of the
company.
"I had several discussions, you know. Obviously, the performance
from the prior year had been significantly soured," Cogswell
said. "There were a number of things that needed to be changed,
looked at, directions and so forth, and I did agree to come back
at that point in time to take on the challenge, so to speak."
(CLICK
HERE for related story.)
CLICK HERE for more information from the hearing.
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