What hasn't been highlighted is that CEO Gerard J Arpey opposed that decision for a long time. Upon finally losing that battle with his board of directors, he opted to deny their request for him to stay on board; instead he resigned with only his nearly worthless stock holdings.
According to this NYT op ed, Arpey believes that bankruptcy is morally wrong on both a personal and corporate level; he therefore refused to lead the company down that path and so - after 30 years with the company - he quit.
?I believe it?s important to the character of the company and its ultimate long-term success to do your very best to honor those commitments,? he said. ?It is not good thinking ? either at the corporate level or at the personal level ? to believe you can simply walk away from your circumstances.?
It is easy to oppose or support ideals in theory; it is much harder to choose to support those ideals on moral grounds and reject lots of money, a cherished job and a career you've spent your life building.
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