Founders Hold On Tight Even When Investors Really Want Them Gone
- After 10 months of scandal, Liberty Tax’s Hewitt agrees to go
- Relentless public shaming proves effective when boards aren’t
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John Hewitt got pushed out of a company he’d founded once. So when he started Liberty Tax, he wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again. He almost succeeded.
A sex scandal prompted the board to fire Hewitt from his role as chief executive officer in September, but his shares gave him continued control of the firm. Shareholders sued, executives resigned in protest, two separate independent auditors ended relationships with the company and the stock plummeted.