Former U.S. president Harry Truman once said if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. And for Monster Worldwide founder Andrew J. McKelvey, it seems to be scorching. Declining to be interviewed by a special committee for company's stock options grants, the executive quit the board of directors on Monday, Oct. 30. McKelvey is the latest executive to flee the scene in the wake of a stock options backdating scandal. It was his final retreat, having given up his role as chairman and chief executive earlier this month in connection with the probe, and becoming chairman emeritus.
In a letter to the law firm investigating Monster filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, McKelvey's attorney Steven Reich said the former executive was sick, jet-lagged and unprepared when he testified on the backdating issue in July. According to Reuters, Reich wrote:
"During the time period relevant to your questions, he did not understand that it was improper for the exercise price of stock options to be different than the price on the grant dates, nor did he understand that there were legal or accounting implications associated with that difference."
He was also confused, it seems. The explanation seems to correlate to why McKelvey said he was resigning the first time:
"At this stage in my life, I simply can no longer dedicate the number of hours required by Monster's rapid global growth and the additional demands of time associated with the ongoing historical stock option grant review."—Gerald Magpily & Carolyn Murphy
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