What makes a CEO a CEO?

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huntingonthebluffs
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What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by huntingonthebluffs » Sat Apr 20, 2019 2:22 am

Part I:
Many here, maybe most, have a better understanding than I about the role of the CEO. I have basically spent a little time Googling on the subject and summarizing some of it here. Certain far from an exhaustive effort. Most is not verbatim from these sources as I tried to summarize or read between the lines along the way, hopefully without excessive collateral damage. I know this will not be of interest to many, but hopefully some can improve their thinking about Dr. John Scarlett's role and contributions to Geron’s success.

Truth in motive, wanted to spend a little time on this due to what I believe is the very unfair but frequent disrespect and bashing of Dr. John Scarlett on the YM and SA boards. It is clear to me, maybe incorrectly, that none of the JS bashers actually know for a fact what they are talking about. Many are obviously short sellers. Some are simply in pain due to the JNJ/Janssen negative CD and the ensuing financial impacts to their personal finances and/or patients hopes of having access. I understand and emphasize with the latter. And in fairness, those of us who judge JS in an appreciative way don't actually know for sure what we are talking about either but we at least do speak regarding what we know to be factual.

So… What is the Geron CEO’s regimen on the job every day? How many hours a week does he work on the Geron / Imetelstat challenges, opportunities, goals? How many meetings does he average per week, the meeting agendas, the phone calls he receives and makes, what employee or organizational decisions does he make? And who of us know how much time he spends with his fellow employees and BOD to flush out where they should be applying their resources, taking risks, building out infrastructure, solving problems? Is he constantly thinking about work and seemingly always on the clock or not? And what was considered in his key decision making throughout his time at Geron, especially in 2018 - 2019? Etc.

Okay, so what follows, I have essentially pulled from a few Googled items.

What does a CEO do? CEOs look like they have it made. The pay is great, and the benefits are great – so what’s not to love? What most people don’t realize is how much time and energy a successful CEO devotes to his company. Most CEOs need to make personal sacrifices in order to attain and maintain the level of success they have achieved.

Up early in the morning, CEOs check messages and email, some prefer to “work out” first then check status followed by breakfast if time allows. Emails can easily average 100 – 500 a day so screen for the important ones that need immediate action and leave the rest for later. Or depending on the day’s agenda, have an office manager cover that base for them and verbally check with the CEO on critical items that need attention. Getting to the office often consists of a driver so they can focus entirely on work including checking in with and getting updates from staff, other teams and executives via video calls given the extensive communication technologies available today. Arrive at the office between 8 to 9 AM.

Once at work, follow up on actions flowing from emails, phone calls, preparations for various meetings with teams and on various projects. Grab a quick lunch, often eat a sandwich in the office while reading or meeting with senior staff or executives. Typical week is 60 hours with 30% of the time or 18 hours in meetings.

Often a CEO’s time is spent on the projects on his mind and/or critical to the company’s key goals and of those projects, generally focuses primarily on ones employees or affiliates that may be struggling with.

Arrive home between 7 – 8 PM so a 11 to 12 hour workday. After dinner and spending time with family, it is also quite typical to spend another 2 or more hours on work related activities, so approximately 13-14 hours per day consumed by the job. Getting to bed by 10:30 to 11 PM in order to get 6-7 hours of sleep before the next day begins.

Many of the CEOs try to spend quality time with their families on the weekend. That said, family time on the weekend isn’t always set in stone, depending on travel schedules and customer meetings. Most also start working again Sunday evening in order to prepare themselves for the coming work week.

Obviously a CEO’s life involves compromises. The days are long and the schedules are full, but these disadvantages often represent the trade-offs needed to provide a high standard of living for the families of the CEOs. A CEO’s job is never done, but for the most part, this hard work pays off in the end.

So while CEOs are in the top 1% of income people, they are also in the top 1% of time spent working on the job.

huntingonthebluffs
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by huntingonthebluffs » Sat Apr 20, 2019 2:24 am

Part II
Now what traits / characteristics makes a person a candidate for becoming a CEO? Here is a very long list of characteristics often used in regards to CEOs: endless grit, resilience and perseverance, reputation awareness and protector, diversity oriented, understands the positive / negative power of social media, technology savvy, relentlessly optimistic, big egos with confidence in their abilities, always pushing to go faster and bigger while paying attention to all of the details, CEOs are the pacesetter in any corporation, open to learning so they continue to live at their growth edge, greater sense of purpose and passion for what they do than other members of company leadership, embraces risk in a way that often differs from the other members of their leadership team and willingness to take risks is a dominant trait for those in the CEO role, organized in their approach to solving problems within the business, organized thinking and knowing which issues are tangential and which are priorities, having a knack for seeing past the noise, an ability to remain consistent in their forms of communication, convey information in language that keeps parties neutral and avoiding litigation, does not cause or instigate conflict and is easily understandable on strategy pronouncements, knows the value of soft skills, and many devote time and effort to refining their communication skills for the betterment of the team and company as a whole, knows the difference between having your head in the clouds, daydreaming about ideas that sound great in theory but have no real-world application, and realistic optimism, extremely aware of the pieces on the chessboard, and how certain moves will affect the position of the company, but they are also willing to consider solutions others might deem unconventional, never waiting to have all the information to decide on a path of action but willing to change if circumstances change, vision that dictates the future of the, the greatest CEOs find ways to continue exploring and nurturing their vision, and ways of testing their vision in the real world without putting their company in danger, remain open to the feedback of others, especially the rest of their leadership team, to help them refine and develop their vision for the company so while they may be in the driver’s seat, the most successful CEOs do not believe themselves to be a one-person show, assembles a team of the brightest, smartest, knowledgable and experienced people available, confident in their abilities yet willing to admit their faults, CEO’s have to be certain of their decisions but open to feedback and adjustment and while dedicated to their vision always continuing to ask questions and considering other potential outcomes.

Again looking at the Googled items, a few findings that might surprise:

1. Most CEOs become CEOs, not because of their birth rights, genetics, gender, color, formal education, etc but rather their choices, behaviors, effort, goals, things in general that most of us can control such as how we behave and act.
2. Introverts are slightly more likely to be the most effective CEOs than extroverts but not a deciding factor.
3. Most have made major mistakes along their career paths but have learned and grown from them. Boards actually do want to see somebody who has had to deal with tremendous amount of pressure, has battle scars and that a candidate is able to describe, explain, and own up to choices, mistakes, failures or blow ups as this builds stronger trust with the board.
4. Generally the characteristics that help someone get the job are not the same characteristics that make them successful in the job. So being warm and confident helps you get the job, but it doesn’t seem to help you on the job. And while boards and investors that make hiring decisions are very sophisticated and very thoughtful, ultimately, when it comes to picking people, they resort to gut feel and confidence is no longer the factor that helps separate the best from the rest.

At the end of the day, the CEO must be both the pacesetter and the goal setter while for the most part, CEOs are not on the frontlines. The way they achieve results typically is by setting direction, and then ensuring that their organization is aligned behind that direction. So for any CEO, being able to make the best decision in a timely manner and adapting the business model when more is known is a most critical attribute. Waiting or not deciding can be paralyzing or even fatal and the buck does stop at the CEO’s desk. CEOs earn their keep by stepping up, taking the risks and making the key decisions that chart out the success of the corporation.

Certainly anyone can cherry pick what they like in Dr. John Scarlett or not, but all in all he appears to me to be a strong leader while maintaining a low profile. He seems to have many of the attributes and characteristics listed above and seems to stay focused on moving Imetelstat ahead and filtering out the immense amount of noise. Can / should he improve, grow and adapt? Always and I expect that he is! Does he have the mind, heart and spirit to make Geron a success? I think so but he’s on the clock and if 2019 is truly pivotal like he says, we will have him to thank for it and like it or not we will owe him for that. Again, what do the bashers know about the Geron CEO, not much really just like the rest of us, except most of us see it very differently and continue to put our money and support behind it. Karma is likely on our side!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/deeppatel/ ... 44d48e1f02
https://www.workforce.com/2017/08/01/day-life-ceo/
https://hbr.org/ideacast/2017/05/4-beha ... -ceos.html

Smuggie
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by Smuggie » Sun Apr 21, 2019 12:30 pm

How well compensated is JS? There is well known fact ceo compensation is inversely correlated with company performance over time. (This is performance based pay they are talking about too, like stock options or restricted stock)

cheng_ho
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by cheng_ho » Mon Apr 22, 2019 9:08 pm

Board votes make a CEO. That's all there is to it, and that's why Scarlett grabbed the Chairman post.

As far as Scarlett "working 11 to 12 hours a day"... you're going far beyond any evidence. Listen to the old CCs, Olivia has to remind him of basic facts like trial dates.

There are arguments for owning GERN, e.g. the patent hoard. The CEO's "work" during the Janssen period is not on the list.

huntingonthebluffs
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by huntingonthebluffs » Tue Apr 23, 2019 6:51 pm

Okay, I expected the usual negative and off base responses to this post but maybe if you could stay on point and try to bring some reasonable contribution to what goes into making a CEO it would be appreciated. I may have understated my knowledge on what makes a CEO but I would say that primarily because I can compare to the negative comments which have nothing to do with leadership skills. I do happen to know a considerable amount on the subject of leadership and can see that JS has many of the better characteristics while never enough for the negatives.

Maybe I should kindly conclude that these comments are by people who simply have no idea what it takes to bring a novel through the needle’s eye of the pharmaceutical industry and past the FDA/EUA to commercialization or to evaluate what leadership team needs of its CEO to achieve success.

I would agree that JS and other C-suite execs are well paid, maybe even somewhat overpaid. However, there is a range of pay that Geron falls safely within. Again, to my post, I don’t see how pay makes a CEO.

Pay is related to performance especially in the C-suite. So while on the point of pay, I would say most “opinions” on the boards are based on what we think he has been responsible for or not. Objectively, the significant positive events far outweigh the negatives; however the share price after the JNJ/Janssen debacle and the stated extended planning horizon to realize a NDA blotted out much of investor excitement. I personally think excitement will and already is returning to both the investor and patient community. However, objectively, JS doesn’t single handedly control the share price and I believe he has minimal interest in going there for several reasons such as he is realistic in his expectations on worst case which leads us to why we have the current form of the long range plan. However, to think JS doesn’t also have a best case scenario in mind would be unrealistic in the nth degree but never mentioned by the negative slant’ers.

As far as the negative comments of what JS does on the job in terms of hours worked or specific actions taken during the JNJ/Janssen CLA; these are simply cheap shots. Certainly only a measure of the poster’s purpose and knowledge because they apparently have no idea what it takes to be a CEO. And secondly, and like the rest of us, regarding what JS specifically does, day to day. The purpose of my post was to spend a little time dialoguing about what makes a CEO but so far not much of a dialogue.

biopearl123
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by biopearl123 » Wed Apr 24, 2019 3:01 am

Hunt, read with interest your astute analysis of Dr. Scarlett as CEO in light of an academic view of what does make for a good CEO. Truth is we don't actually know how many hours a day he works for what that looks like but as you imply, it has to be considerable to evaluate possible acquisitions and possible development partners. It has to be considerable to evaluate new hires. It has to be considerable to map new plans for further studies and drug development. The real politic of the matter is that he is the leader and he has the support of his board. He has the support of the institutional investors who will vote their millions of shares in support and at least for the moment it looks like we are not facing a reverse split. Imagine starting the search for a new CEO now, that would be a disaster. Is there anyone out there who would not vote to approve the spectacular new board nominees? I think Dr. Scarlett has a plan an is seeing it through. Since Janssen did not have the Lus data at the time of the CD (and we don't know if it would have mattered), it is likely that the FDA didn't either, opening the possibility that the FDA or EMA will be open to modification of drug status based on data presented at ASH (BAT, or even provisional acceptance). Why the wait to June 6th for the meeting? The most likely explanation is the the PIII MDS study will have started and Scarlett can provide the appropriate fanfare. But if the PIII study starts, given that there has been adequate time for the FDA to consider some modification in study design or drug status, that would be great. Fast track does confer more hands on guidance from the agency. I am not overly optimistic that this will happen but the new FDA acting director actually knows what a telomere is and very likely knows the potential for therapies that could be developed to target telomerase up regulation. I do wish Scarlett would call the question re MF. He has molecular markers (in both studies--something the FDA claims can facilitate approval as a surrogate endpoint.). Its time for the FDA to live up to their purported talk of facilitated approvals based on end points that don't require death and long long studies. Imetelstat approval would be a great way to demonstrate their commitment to this new more open minded path to approval. bp

cheng_ho
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by cheng_ho » Fri Apr 26, 2019 3:47 pm

Not only does the new FDA director know what a telomere is, he knows that there are multiple telomerase-inhibiting drugs that have already been used clinically since the 1990s, e.g. 6-thio-G, AZT, AZA, etc. etc.... something which GERN enthusiasts keep trying to ignore.

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-07-15

karagozoglu12345
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by karagozoglu12345 » Sat Apr 27, 2019 2:09 am

Cheng-ho: Unfortunately, competition issues and conservative stance by management (i.e., no emphasis on combos, leaving MF to be decided upon despite claims it prolongs life significantly, no long-term vision for Imetelstat, other?) has been depressing share price in the lower end of the penny stock range. In fact, Geron, in my opinion, needs to be more aggressive to counterbalance the competitive factors. When I post a critical view about management, I am usually crucified by pumper longs. What they don't consider is I would be thrilled to hear fact-based opposing views as I have vested interest to recover over 450 hundred thousand dollars if and when Geron succeeds. If you care to respond, please don't blame the stock market games and manipulations as all biotech stocks are subject to such shenanigans. If you think management is doing wonderful only because they hired former Imetelstat trial people, I am not buying your argument. That was a good move, indeed, but any chief executive would have considered hiring these folks first due to their experience with Imetelstat trials. Best source on what makes a CEO highly effective is Good to Great by James Collins. The author, based on extensive research out of Stanford University, has identified level 1(inferior) to level 5 (superior) leader. Make your own judgment what of these levels Geron leadership falls under. I have absolutely no intention to be disrespectful to any party whatsoever and that entertaining a critical view is not a disrespectful predisposition.

huntingonthebluffs
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by huntingonthebluffs » Sun Apr 28, 2019 8:04 pm

Thanks Biopearl for your thoughts, you always have a balanced grasp on reality supported by facts and reasonable conclusions. Yes, the table set up as you outlined does reflect 2019 to be a pivotal year. Certainly that doesn’t just refer to MDS PIII. A pivotal year does not and should not mean everything at once, events and advances will build on each other. To be pivotal we need to see a potent mixture of organization changes, MF developments and possibly a blueprint for pre-clinicals including combinations, new FDA designations and other FDA / EMA actions, conferences and further trial results released, new patient options, share price appreciation, etc. must occur for 2019 to be pivotal.

karagozoglu12345, obviously we all know JS is very conservative in what he says and the information he releases and we wish he would elaborate and take more questions. We also know he is probably introverted; however we should be able to see that his intelligence, thoughtfulness, warmness, determination, confidence, strength of character etc. brings much balance to what and where one can observe that his leadership is taking us. While we have had very minimal negative clinical information over the last 4 years, we have a propensity to focus on the negatives, especially the share price, JNJ/Janssen saga, official public schedule, etc. We can all draw our own conclusions from the tea leaves, but to pick apart everything that is shared with the public from a negative slant when the science is still progressing ahead, might not serve any of us well as investors or patients. I have reviewed some of James Collins work and certainly it has merit and can be used as a filter to analyze strengths and weaknesses of the Geron CEO, but the fact remains that in the end, great biotech leadership is enhanced from and second fiddle to the science they represent. I believe we have great science and more than decent leadership and that is enough for some of us to believe we are on the right path to success from a science and investment perspective

Smuggie
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by Smuggie » Mon Apr 29, 2019 7:03 am

Sorry if it felt off topic. But I was trying to put my undergrad business lessons into play when asking about compensation.
Here is an article discussing how overpaid CEOs do worse (and how stock options are not good at motivating CEOs, ironically) and their companies do worse.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams ... tudy-says/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ceo-pay-an ... 1526299200''

Now here is a Simply Wall Street review of CEO compensation for GERN.

https://simplywall.st/stocks/us/pharmac ... its-peers/

Just one factor, obviously an obscure one, but backed by evidence. I guess i'm that person at parties with the nerdy facts.
(I also feel he could have pushed for combination studies earlier though. Kinda frustrated that hasn't been started yet, if he cared about saving the world first and foremost).

cheng_ho
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by cheng_ho » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:13 pm

Thanks Smuggie, interesting stuff... I would have expected options to work better as incentives, at least on CEOs that are below retirement age and still have active lifespan remaining.

The good news at GERN, if there is any, is that the Janssen crew knows more about the MOA than anyone else. That doesn't mean that JNJ was wrong to drop us, but it DOES mean that that Rizo should have the best chance of designing a combo trial that would work. Problem there is that GERN doesn't even have a lab anymore, and JNJ let the imet clinical team go but kept Sergei firmly in their grasp.

karagozoglu12345
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by karagozoglu12345 » Mon Apr 29, 2019 10:12 pm

Smuggle: The compensation issue is an important consideration.

Hunt: I chose to respond to your reaction mainly because of my ( perhaps naïve) hope that someone from Geron management will possibly read the present discourse and see an opportunity to saw the seeds for diverse input in the decision making process.


“While we have had very minimal negative clinical information over the last 4 years, we have a propensity to focus on the negatives, especially the share price…”
My reason to bring up the share price issue has to do with the fact that it generally mirrors a company’s overall performance over time and shows the degree of confidence of the investor community on its prospect.


“To pick apart everything that is shared with the public from a negative slant when the science is still progressing ahead, might not serve any of us well as investors or patients”
I find your reaction (i.e., “to pick apart everything”) is an exaggeration to what I intended to contribute. I have articulated critical views regarding what should have been shared with the public as well as what has been shared. I respectfully beg to differ that critical views with a well established reason (in the absence of personal attacks) does not serve patients and investors. I hold the opposite view. To make my perspective more clear I found the following article from Harvard Business School for you to consider:


Encouraging dissent in decision making
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/encouraging- ... ion-making





“…the fact remains that in the end, great biotech leadership is enhanced from and second fiddle to the science they represent”

We can agree to disagree on this point as well. A well-established notion in the innovation literature is that the companies that pioneer disruptive innovation are not always the ones ultimately profit from it irrespective of how great the science and technology is. Below is a good read vis-à-vis this topic:




• AltaVista -> Google
• Napster -> iTunes
• VisiCalc -> Lotus 123 -> Excel
• Word Perfect -> Word
• Netscape -> Internet Explorer
• Apple Newton -> Palm Pilot -> Blackberry
• IBM PC -> Compaq -> Dell
• Double Click -> Google Ad Sense
• Ofoto -> Flickr
• Compuserve -> AOL -> @Home -> Comcast & Verizon
• Nintendo –> Xbox
• Friendster –> Facebook
• Blackberry –> iPhone
All of these companies were innovation leaders and market leaders. Yet, they were eclipsed by fast followers. My belief is that the technology was outstanding...the management was not.
https://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_b ... ators.html



Please see below in the words of James Collins, how level 5 leaders value confronting brutal facts and encouraging critical views, and other important characteristics:


The moment a leader allows himself to become the primary reality people worry about, rather than reality being the primary reality, you have a recipe for mediocrity, or worse. This is one of the key reasons why less charismatic leaders often produce better long-term results than their more charismatic counterparts.
Indeed, for those of you with a strong, charismatic personality, it is worthwhile to consider the idea that charisma can be as much a liability as an asset. Your strength of personality can sow the seeds of problems, when people filter the brutal facts from you. You can overcome the liabilities of having charisma, but it does require conscious attention.
Winston Churchill understood the liabilities of his strong personality, and he compensated for them beautifully during the Second World War. Churchill, as you know, maintained a bold and unwavering vision that Britain would not just survive, but prevail as a great nation—despite the whole world wondering not if but when Britain would sue for peace. During the darkest days, with nearly all of Europe and North Africa under Nazi control, the United States hoping to stay out of the conflict, and Hitler fighting a one-front war (he had not yet turned on Russia), Churchill said: “We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi regime. From this, nothing will turn us. Nothing! We will never parley. We will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land. We shall fight him by sea. We shall fight him in the air. Until, with God’s help, we have rid the earth of his shadow.”
Armed with this bold vision, Churchill never failed, however, to confront the most brutal facts. He feared that his towering, charismatic personality might deter bad news from reaching him in its starkest form. So, early in the war, he created an entirely separate department outside the normal chain of command, called the Statistical Office, with the principal function of feeding him—continuously updated and completely unfiltered—the most brutal facts of reality. He relied heavily on this special unit throughout the war, repeatedly asking for facts, just the facts. As the Nazi panzers swept across Europe, Churchill went to bed and slept soundly: “I... had no need for cheering dreams,” he wrote.“Facts are better than dreams.”
Now, you might be wondering, “How do you motivate people with brutal facts? Doesn’t motivation flow chiefly from a compelling vision?” The answer, surprisingly, is, “No.” Not because vision is unimportant, but because expending energy trying to motivate people is largely a waste of time. One of the dominant themes that runs throughout this book is that if you successfully implement its findings, you will not need to spend time and energy “motivating” people. If you have the right people on the bus, they will be self-motivated. The real question then becomes: How do you manage in such a way as not to de-motivate people?And one of the single most de-motivating actions you can take is to hold out false hopes, soon to be swept away by events.
Yes, leadership is about vision. But leadership is equally about creating a climate where the truth is heard and the brutal facts confronted. There’s a huge difference between the opportunity to “have your say” and the opportunity to be heard. The good-to-great leaders understood this distinction, creating a culture wherein people had a tremendous opportunity to be heard and, ultimately, for the truth to be heard.

huntingonthebluffs
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by huntingonthebluffs » Tue Apr 30, 2019 12:42 am

Smuggie, I wasn’t really looking to have a dialogue on CEO compensation via this topic but you seem to insist so I will comment from my perspective. I view myself as a bit of a propeller-head so I understand nerdy quite well. I prefer to not attempt technical in my comments on this board as many of the links go far beyond my pay grade as well as the knowledge and experience of board members.

I have found C-suite execs pay to be a little tricky to calculate and speaking in averages and generalities usually take statistical findings far beyond their purpose and value, especially when we are talking about applying to a single instance such as the Geron CEO. It’s also a challenge to assess what should be contained in the compensation package company to company as there are many significant/substantial variables. To that end, Geron has a BOD’s compensation committee and they have utilized Radford, a well-known and respected compensation and awards consultancy to advise.

https://radford.aon.com/rewards/executi ... consulting

If you haven’t already, I might suggest you go there to gain some insight on what Radford’s mission and accomplishments are and then read the Geron Schedule 14A recently filed with the SEC reviewing the 20 pages or so in the section titled COMPENSATION DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS.

Most of the press on JS’s compensation indicate it to be $2.7 million. However, his cash salary for 2018 was $667,000 and bonus of $280,140, noting that the salary was $23,000 more than 2017 and bonus was $106,260 LESS than 2017. The majority of his options are underwater while given an intrinsic value taking his salary/bonus and stock options to a value of $2.7 million.

You may find it interesting in this section to also read about Geron’s C-suite performance goals and achievement against those goals. You will also find some discussion around what I believe to consider the options available to using Imetelstat in various ways, including combinations (see item 8. In 2018 Corporate Goal Achievement Factor pages 44-46).

My point being that just because we aren’t privy, doesn’t mean that the very intelligent and savvy people at Geron aren’t doing a lot of work on finding all the ways to commercialize and monetize Geron’s assets in the most efficient and effective manner. Reading the entire Schedule 14A might add insight and perspective to what goes on behind the doors at Geron versus just pushing the negative strands from a distance to the specific facts, many of which we don’t know.

karagozoglu12345, I appreciate and accept your thoughts and research on the subject of leadership. My only thought, with little time to review and consider your detailed comments now, is that history will judge Geron, it's technology and leadership but not effectively until many more chapters have been written.

huntingonthebluffs
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by huntingonthebluffs » Tue Apr 30, 2019 12:48 am

Here is the link to the Geron Schedule 14A filed with the SEC if anyone is interested in reading some of it. I meant to include it in the previous comment.

http://ir.geron.com/node/16036/html

cheng_ho
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by cheng_ho » Tue Apr 30, 2019 8:21 pm

I'm all in favor of market-based CEO compensation. I remember the hilarity that ensued when Ben&Jerry tried to hire a "CEO" for one-tenth the market rate (they ended up paying the market rate after all, big surprise).

But that doesn't mean that stockholders can just go to sleep while a long-term CEO shuts down a company's operations and goes on a four-year vacation. And it doesn't make it better when he grabs control of the BoD... checks and balances aren't a river in Egypt.

Do you think an independent board would really leave an over-retirement age, unengaged Scarlett in charge of GERN's patent hoard, the development of modern combination trials, etc.? His company hasn't even had a lab since he gave Sergei to JNJ!

Scarlett has had to be reminded of basic things like trial dates by Olivia. He hasn't even "talked to experts" about MF... isn't he supposed to have some interest in the MF field?

it's great that we have some real workers from Janssen... let's put one of them in charge in Joisey, and retire the Menlo Park office.

huntingonthebluffs
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Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by huntingonthebluffs » Tue Apr 30, 2019 9:32 pm

Karagozoglu12345, with all due respect intended in my remarks, it is in my humble experience that to continually embrace and recite the same cadre of remarks about our CEO and the JNJ/Janssen debacle is, regardless of how unintentional, an attempt to control, focus and retard the dialog and actually limits diverse input. I personally find very little value or merit in continuing down that path. And especially, when the same points have been made all too frequently, and by most of us at one time or another.

I accept your point that it is an exaggeration to say “pick apart everything”. However, your comments seem to have a tendency repeatedly to suppress the opposite of your premise, actually detracting from anyone who might try to offer insights that could promote and innovate the path forward. I do believe that in this age of open, intensive communication and technology advancements, to think that anyone has suppressed the diverse discourse you are espousing from getting to the Geron CEO and the entire C-suite of personnel, while possible, would not be a high probability in my view.

So what happened is now history, enough has been said and from here; Geron, investors and patients must pick themselves up, dust themselves off and get back to work. I personally don’t know what has transpired in the C-suite at Geron and assume you and the rest of the board members here do not either. However, I don’t think there has been a lack of understanding or cover-up by our CEO with his confidants on what and why the past events or future agenda are unfolding as we are given to see them. What has been made public is not adequate for most of us but to think that reflects their lack of understanding of the facts or resolve probably is not on the mark either.

So yes, while the stock price indicates a major stumble in the strategy and hopes for Geron; who doesn’t understand that fact inside or outside Geron at this juncture? I don’t know to what degree or if at all diverse views and necessary candor are rewarded or suppressed within Geron, who does among us? However, I believe it’s a high probability that JS knows the value of talent on his team and that ”an aware, open, and inquiring senior team is critical to sound decision-making.” and likely now more than ever before. It might also be said that once a dissenting view has been stated firmly by a respected member of a corporate executive team, it is heard and mulled, while a new inventive idea often needs to be repeated while both points challenge conventional wisdom and the resistance to change.

I do stand by my view that greatness in biotech leadership is second fiddle to the science and would add to that, the emphasis should be on the leadership team which the leader has assembled to support and help guide him/her. While there are always examples of the contrary on being second fiddle, they are not the propensity in my opinion. I understand there are some fast followers in the hematology/oncology field challenging Geron’s turf but I don’t think it is about a better technology engine here, rather it’s about the competition getting their oar in the water before the ten-thousand pound gorilla takes the field.

Thanks again for your input on the subject and your willingness to present new information for us to ponder. I believe the corner is just ahead and Geron will be proven to have made the right turn this time.

bucbeard
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2018 12:30 am

Re: What makes a CEO a CEO?

Post by bucbeard » Thu May 02, 2019 11:53 am

strong thread. thanks Hunting for your wisdom and the group for the dialog on an interesting topic.

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