Originally posted by Hello Kitty:
erm, den...?
me more interested to knw wateber had happened to one of the profs in the gang of 4.
The case study is about Prof Sonnerfeld. At that time, he was a professor at Emory Business school. He was very charismatic and has extensive network of American CEOs and chairmen, including Bill Clinton. He was considered a very talented professor with ability to garner sponsorships from companies and top speakers to the business school. He was about to resign and joined rival university Georgia Tech university as their Business school Dean.
Suddenly, one day the Atlanta police called him up and threatened him with legal action on his 'vandalism' of school corridor. The police officer in charge, LT Howard threatened him and made sacratic remarks. The evidence was a scratched video tape. Lt Howard kept pressuring him to resign, saying that the Emory will keep mute about his resignation. Thinking that he was going over to Georgia Tech as Dean, Sonnerfeld resigned.
Soon, Emory President Chace started to leak the information to the press. He also called up Georgia Tech President to update him about the situation. In the end, Sonnerfeld deanship in Georgia Tech, subject to approval, was annulled.
His reputation was in shatter, no job, under immense stress...
However, Prof Sonnerfeld is a charismatic man with a huge network with many American companies CEO, chairmen etc. He sent them his side of the story, together with the video tape(which Emory later sent him) to them. With ta Atlanta Democrat State Representative(forget her name) and CEOs help, Sonnerfeld sued Emory to court. During this time, Yale President(if I am not wrong) see the opportunity and invited Prof Sonnerfeld to join Yale.
The lawsuit lasted for 2.5 years with Emory finally redrew their accusation of Prof Sonnerfeld for vandalism. Now, Prof Sonnerfeld is an extremely successful chairman of Yale Business center.
My Personal View:
Somehow, I believe the vandalism accusation was just a plot by Emory to tarnish Prof Sonnerfeld reputation. As he was about to jump ship to rival Georgia Tech (the region only got 2 universities Emory and Georgia Tech), Emory decided to take action.
The loss of Prof Sonnerfeld to rival business school will definitely hurt Emory own business school. Moreover, Emory President Chace dun like him in the first place. Will you believe a successful Prof will go around vandalising school corriders?
