Monahan 02 Artificial Intentions by Rosemarie A D'Amico Page A

business at hand. I had sat mute throughout most of the meeting, trying to pay attention and understand everything going on.
    It was the first time in my life that I remember feeling completely intimidated and shy. Shy wasn’t even a word in my vocabulary but the overwhelming enormity of what had happened to me in the last twelve hours rendered me helpless in front of these people.
    The names of the directors were familiar to me when I was introduced but my mind was too full to try and remember their backgrounds. A couple of them I remembered from my dealings with the company when it had first gone public. One of the directors was a vice president of the company.
    Cleve had started the meeting by introducing me formally and then explaining the terms and conditions of Tommy’s will. There were no gasps of surprise so I was sure everyone had been brought up to speed before I arrived. Cleve then put forth a motion to appoint me chairperson of the board and it had been carried unanimously.
    The next item for discussion was the content of the press release that would be sent out first thing in the morning. The release set out in vague verbiage how I had come to be appointed to the office of chairperson. Several directors were quoted with bon mots about the tragedy of the loss of life and how pleased they were that I was joining the company and that I’d be a great addition to the team.
    There was a paragraph about me, outlining my illustrious career in law and high technology. I had trouble believing that what had been written was actually about me. It was all factual but it gave me an uneasy feeling. Whoever had written it made it sound too good.
    I held up the draft press release and pointed to the paragraph about me.
    “Is this necessary?” I asked Cleve who was sitting beside me at the boardroom table.
    “Absolutely. The shareholders are going to want to know who’s running the ship.”
    “It’s too flowery. Almost unbelievable. Tone it down a little. I don’t think we should oversell me.”
    “We’ll rewrite it. But we have to put in your background.”
    “Fine. I’d rather we didn’t have to do any damage control when someone takes a close look at it. We should be up front from the beginning. Full, true and plain disclosure,” I reminded him, stating the strong, basic principle of securities law.
    “Absolutely,” Cleve agreed with me. I wasn’t going to play any of the games with press releases that I had witnessed in my years at TechniGroup Consulting.
    A short press release had gone out earlier in the day announcing the death of Tommy and the shares of the company had closed down about half a dollar. Cleve warned me that we could expect that the stock would be down again the next day and that it would be impossible to predict what the market’s reaction was going to be.
    We finished up the meeting quickly, covering off the approval of the financial statements because the company had a deadline for filing the various documents with the OSC and the SEC and the stock exchanges. I abstained from voting.
    Before leaving the office I asked for a copy of all press releases from the last two years and the last two annual reports and 10K’s. I had some serious studying to do and some fast catching-up. And I was probably going to have to hire a tutor to help me through the financial stuff.
    After the meeting I made a quick exit and Cleve escorted me down in the elevator to the waiting car. In the elevator I broached the subject I had been avoiding all day.
    “I want to speak to the police about Tommy’s death. I need to find out what happened. Has anyone been in contact with you?”
    “Yes,” he responded slowly. “In fact, there’ve been several messages from the detective in charge. They want to meet with you as soon as possible.”
    “They have no idea who was responsible?”
    Cleve didn’t answer me.
    “What’s happening with the investigation?” I pressed him.
    We were outside the building now,