Christian Horner under Investigation

[Wouter]

I believe there is a good chance that all of the racing activities being moved out from the purview of the CEO of Corporate Projects and New Investments to directly under the board.

In which case Marko continuing to monitoring racing activities on behalf of the board is going to be slim. He may continue being around as the in-charge of the driver development programme but not as a representative of the board or the major shareholder.

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HUH?? What are you talking about?! Are you talking about team RBR or RB GmbH?
In both cases I don't understand your story. And Marko a stakeholder?? Yes, only from his own hotels.

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Marko was representative of a DM, a major shareholder till 2022
Marko is representative of Red Bull GmbH board or CEO currently

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Your story makes no sense at all. Helmut Marko is an employee of RB GmbH and a director of RBR (not paid).

He has and had nothing to do with shares and he has nothing to do with the board and a CEO of RBR or RB GmbH.

[chrisc90]

As if they would have important business meetings in full view of everyone in the paddock and media.

Just a little informal chat probably. Won’t be anything to the ‘Horner files’ case.

Come on guys.

[PapayaFan481]

In a normal scenario, if you remove the politics of the team, in a giant capitalist multi bullion dollar organization, would they sacrifice a CEO for a coffee assistant?

The costs don't add up, one you risk some reputations damage, which will blow over by paying off the media, the other you guarantee yourself a downturn. One which could take a decade ro ger out of (ask ferrari post Todt)

I'm sorry, but "coffee assistant"??? Are you being intentionally derogatory, or do you really not understand what the PA to a CEO does??

[Sieper]

In a normal scenario, if you remove the politics of the team, in a giant capitalist multi bullion dollar organization, would they sacrifice a CEO for a coffee assistant?

The costs don't add up, one you risk some reputations damage, which will blow over by paying off the media, the other you guarantee yourself a downturn. One which could take a decade ro ger out of (ask ferrari post Todt)

I'm sorry, but "coffee assistant"??? Are you being intentionally derogatory, or do you really not understand what the PA to a CEO does??

I have asked the same exact question (first post on the previous page). No answer.

This is the problem I have with all these “ooh but we can’t say anything anymore”. Why would you want to say such things. I can’t understand it.

[Wouter]

In a normal scenario, if you remove the politics of the team, in a giant capitalist multi bullion dollar organization, would they sacrifice a CEO for a coffee assistant?

The costs don't add up, one you risk some reputations damage, which will blow over by paying off the media, the other you guarantee yourself a downturn. One which could take a decade ro ger out of (ask ferrari post Todt)

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I'm sorry, but "coffee assistant"??? Are you being intentionally derogatory, or do you really not understand what the PA to a CEO does??

.
I have asked the same exact question (first post on the previous page). No answer.

This is the problem I have with all these “ooh but we can’t say anything anymore”. Why would you want to say such things. I can’t understand it.

.
I asked him/her a few times a question, but the answers didn't make sense at all. At least, I didn't understand it at all. Must be just me.
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I believe there is a good chance that all of the racing activities being moved out from the purview of the CEO of Corporate Projects and New Investments to directly under the board.

In which case Marko continuing to monitoring racing activities on behalf of the board is going to be slim. He may continue being around as the in-charge of the driver development programme but not as a representative of the board or the major shareholder.

.

HUH?? What are you talking about?! Are you talking about team RBR or RB GmbH?
In both cases I don't understand your story. And Marko a stakeholder?? Yes, only from his own hotels.

.
Marko was representative of a DM, a major shareholder till 2022
Marko is representative of Red Bull GmbH board or CEO currently

.
Your story makes no sense at all. Helmut Marko is an employee of RB GmbH and a director of RBR (not paid).

He has and had nothing to do with shares and he has nothing to do with the board and a CEO of RBR or RB GmbH.

[Richard C]

The CEO vs. "coffee assistant" comment (which is clearly a derogatory viewpoint of subordinate employees) is illuminating. It both illustrates the actual power differential plus the disposable employee attitude that does exist for some in those type of power differential scenarios. This is exactly why even consensual relationships with that level of power differential are fraught with danger.

[PapayaFan481]

The CEO vs. "coffee assistant" comment (which is clearly a derogatory viewpoint of subordinate employees) is illuminating. It both illustrates the actual power differential plus the disposable employee attitude that does exist for some in those type of power differential scenarios. This is exactly why even consensual relationships with that level of power differential are fraught with danger.

A very good point!!

[kptaylor]

While true, it would be infinitely more difficult to replace a successful CEO versus a Personal Assistant. If the findings showed no actionable cause, but that the situation couldn't go on due to the nature of the accusations, keeping the CEO over the PA is a pretty easy decision from a business perspective. That's also probably why there have been rumors of financial compensation to the PA to account for the "unfairness" of that reality.

[myurr]

While true, it would be infinitely more difficult to replace a successful CEO versus a Personal Assistant. If the findings showed no actionable cause, but that the situation couldn't go on due to the nature of the accusations, keeping the CEO over the PA is a pretty easy decision from a business perspective. That's also probably why there have been rumors of financial compensation to the PA to account for the "unfairness" of that reality.

If there's no actionable cause then I'd tend to agree. If, however, the CEO did do wrong and key staff know, then replacing the CEO may be easier than replacing all those who leave from key positions because the company's values no longer align with theirs. Finding the right new CEO may be tough but it's easier than finding 10 new key staff, let alone 20, 30, or more depending on how many decided to move on.

[Wouter]

This GP Horner attended for the first time the mediaday . And I never saw him doing this, maybe I am wrong. Why suddenly?
You have to click on the feed to see the video.



What happend in the team? This was 17 November last year and everyone was laughing and everything seems fine between them.

[Edax]

What happend in the team? This was 17 November last year and everyone was laughing and everything seems fine between them.

Who says that anything did?

So far it has been the tabloids that have been claiming this whole power struggle and rifts within Red Bull. And basically they are just parroting each other with zero evidence.

But it is the same tabloids that recently managed to invent the princess of Wales having an affair and heading for a split. All based on common knowledge and well informed sources.

We know how that turned out.

[PlatinumZealot]

It's fading away.. The freshness of the news is slowly fading away... It's like Horner used the RedBull strategy computers for his own means! It calculated to "hold stations" until the "safety car pit box chaos" passes! Lol.

[myurr]

It's fading away.. The freshness of the news is slowly fading away... It's like Horner used the RedBull strategy computers for his own means! It calculated to "hold stations" until the "safety car pit box chaos" passes! Lol.

It's been a couple of days. The internal appeals process is going to take a couple of weeks, and isn't going to occur during a race weekend as HR / whomever takes over the appeals process will need to sit down with the accuser, her lawyers, Horner, and any number of other key people required.

If this then goes to mediation / tribunal / court then that can take many months to play out depending on the exact process and how busy the courts are at the time. Then you have the possibility of the accuser selling her story to the press - the official processes are only going to rule on how Horner and Red Bull have or have not breached the law. There's a whole layer of moral ambiguity on top of their legal responsibilities, of which I'm sure there will plenty of interest in the press should the victim decide to go down that route.

This isn't going to play out over a weekend.

One curious aspect of this story would be whether or not the legal fees, independent investigations, and any payouts to the victim (should they occur) fall within the budget cap or not...

[Rodak]

Finding the right new CEO may be tough but it's easier than finding 10 new key staff, let alone 20, 30, or more depending on how many decided to move on.

In your dreams will you find 10 (or 20 or 30 or more) key staff who will quit and give up lucrative positions and move on because the CEO ****ed up. I doubt you will find even one.

[Wouter]

Christian Horner, 50-year-old team principal, has been accused of harassing a female employee.

An internal inquiry cleared him of wrongdoing last month. The complainant is now appealing that verdict.

She – and whoever is funding her – is paying legal fees running into hundreds of thousands of pounds to Goodwin Procter,
a global law firm with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, having parted from her previous lawyers, UK-based Lewis Silkin.

The employee is suspended from work at Red Bull’s factory in Milton Keynes on full pay – something like £65,000 a year.
Yet she has also hired a spin doctor, Giles Kenningham, a former head of press at 10 Downing Street and spokesman for Lord David Cameron.

Kenningham was awarded an MBE for political and public service in Cameron’s 2016 resignation honours. He has since set up
his own PR agency, Trafalgar Strategy, self-styled ‘as a strategic communications consultancy, specialising in public affairs,
crisis comms and reputation management’. Presumably, Kenningham’s services don’t come cheap.
‘£15,000 to £20,000 a month,’ estimated one Formula One insider.

The strong feeling is that, regardless of the issue at hand, forces within Red Bull want Horner out as part of an internal power struggle. (Follow the money.)