It really bothers me that we have not been given any explanation as to why our (Interim) President, Troy Stovall, is no longer with the company. He was fired or quit on Thursday 5/14, but we didn't hear about it until late on Monday 5/18. It bothers me because Troy came here to Tampa and had a meeting with the entire site about 2 weeks ago. He gave a good speech and actually gave us a little bit of hope, which we haven't had for a very long time at this school. Now that he is gone, does that mean that everything he said is now "out the window?" We were shocked to learn about his departure, and nobody has been able to give us a reason why he left. In the past, whenever someone high up left the company, they would send us a farewell email, or we would get an email explaining that "_____ has left to pursue other interests. We thank him/her for their hard work and wish them the best." The only notice we got was a short email from Dave Hawn that said "Effective today, I will be assuming the role of President of Zenith Education Group, in addition to my duties as CEO. Interim President Troy Stovall is no longer with the company. All of Troy’s direct reports now report to me." It is shady and unprofessional for a company to remain silent on why our President is no longer with us. At least tell us something, the silence is worrisome.
5 replies (most recent on top)
You all were lucky that you did not have to deal with the likes of Troy Stovall. He has bounced around a lot and that should be a sign. Not a fan.
Good luck to all of you left at Zenith. It sure looks like a very shady company to me. Bringing in the old CCi people to run the schools with no plan for improvement is a great idea. Huge RIFs that will keep on coming. No money being spent on the schools to improve the students education, just keep taking their money. I hope the students see through the scam and leave so the whole rotten mess shuts down.
People -- the communication that you were provided was to the point. The lack of detail as to why he is no longer here should answer your question as to why he departed. You do not need much more detail than that. In addition, I would challenge you to find a company that announces layoffs prior to the day that they take place. I am not sure that this is normal operating practice for many companies. Lastly, the entire conspiracy theory surrounding the back door deal with the DOE is absurd. they paid 24m for the company. In many cases -- they do not own all of the assets. In the case of Wyotech value, it is only worth that which someone will pay. Considering the state of affairs with other education operators, not sure there is much value there. Furthermore, Zenith paid out close to $50m in past due bills and will be incurring quite a loss in the first year of operations. Lastly, for the those that state they will take the loss as a tax write-off; they are a non for profit.
What I heard was there was an issue with the compensation people received when the reduction took place. Don't forget Stacie in HR was also let go on the same day. Something might have happened and the CEO thought it might be best to terminate both of them.
A couple of thoughts in reponse to several of the posts here....... Companies never announce layoffs in advance, other than what is legally required by the WARN act. That said, the company is disregarding (or is ignorant of) the best practice of over-communicating during times of significant organizational change. The Stovall announcement is about what I expected, but I see precious little about plans to grow and improve the organization. Conclusion: there are no such plans. Zenith is a vehicle for DOE to reduce loan forgiveness exposure. Regarding the sale- ECMC ponied up 24 mil. After DOEs piece and contingencies/escrow, CCI received.......zero. ECMC does not have much on the line here. I suspect - but can't prove - a back door deal with DOE to make this worth ECMC's modest effort.
103456 - Thanks for stating the obvious. Of course they will not give us details of why he quit or was fired, but the company should at least communicate with us. "Troy Stovall is no longer with the company" is all we were told. He was our President and he just came down here and held a meeting with the entire site that most people actually appreciated. He discussed the future of our jobs and our compensation, and now he is suddenly gone without any explanation. Even if he was fired, the company should at least tell us he has decided to "pursue other interests" or something like that. The silence regarding his departure has made many of us feel uneasy. Remember all of that "transparency" talk? lol
When anyone is terminated, it's illegal to disclose why. Would you want all of your peers and subordinates to know why and when you were being terminated? Doubtful.
Both of you have great thoughts but I would question Watching and Waiting. ECMC paid $24M up front and $17M of that went to the DOE, the other $7M going to CCi. The nearly half billion in loan forgiveness was from the private loans ECMC bought from CCi at pennies on the dollar. I believe it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $489M in Genesis loans for the price of around $5M. ECMC has around $30M to $35M tied up in the schools. The WyoTech real estate and equipment is worth nearly that much alone. It was a no lose situation for ECMC, either the schools turn around and they make money or they teach them out, sell of the assets and make money. If everyone remembers, the Democratic Senators were against this Deal and demanded to know the entire behind the scenes workings of the Deal. All of a sudden, they all became quiet and you never heard another word from Durbin or the others about how bad the sale of CCi schools to ECMC was. There had to be something in the Deal that made all those senators happy.
I agree with 407's assessment of the communication practice of Zenith corp but I don't see the profitability in collapsing the school in the hope of servicing the debt collection. If I understand the sale agreement correctly, ECMC effectively paid $25M plus an additional $19M due to DoEd in cash and then nearly a half billion in loan forgiveness. That's a lot of money to pay just to get the collection business because that would represent nearly a full quarter of the current outstanding government-guaranteed student loans that students in Zenith schools even have. No, a more plausible explanation is that the same inept and incompetent management has been retained from CCI and this is the result. Zenith NEEDS new leadership with a NEW vision and the people skills to make it happen. Without it and the whole thing will collapse under the weight of the enormous egos of the current senior leadership that just happened to do the same thing at CCI.
The "silence is worrisome" should most definitely instead be "the writing on the wall is clear." Companies that value their employees communicate with them- it's basic human psychology. In order to have a relationship, communication is a must. Zenith/ECMC doesn't communicate key facts to us (like Troy's termination, layoffs of FTF in advance of the day it takes place, and a litany of other non-communication management fails since they took over) because we, the employees, are a number to them.
So what's the writing on the wall? If you haven't been reading this forum frequently and keeping in the loop I'll spell it out succinctly: ECMC created Zenith to do 1 of 2 things (either of which will be profitable to ECMC) either put together a profitable "non-profit" college with minimal effort and cost, or allow Everest and other schools bought from CCi to fail and make profits on the debt collection when it folds. The fact that associate degree programs further evidences this, and lack of communication speaks to their (ECMC's) desire to do this with minimal effort.
Your shocked by the lack of communication, but I'm equally shocked that so many still don't see this company's end goals for what they clearly are...