If you want to table a conflict of interest policy for future consideration, I'll second it. But this motion as written is a personal attack dressed in policy language and I won't have it in my boardroom. Marcus stood very still in the middle of a job site. He read that three more times then type. What did Renick do?
He tried to argue. Chen backed Whitmore. 7 To3 vote to table the motion and redirect to a general policy framework committee. A pause. Renick looked like he'd bitten into something he expected to be sweet.
And then Marcus typed. And then it was my turn. She wrote and I stood up and I said, "Marcus, I said it exactly the way you said to say it." I said, "Before we address the operational agenda, I need to tell this board something true." And I told them about James Okafor. His heart was doing something complicated. I told him everything, what I asked of him, what I saw happening and kept asking anyway, what he said when he left.
And I said he was right. The company I'm building has to be one where I never make that calculation again. And here is specifically how I'm building that accountability into the structure going forward. A pause. Marcus, she wrote.
Whitmore cried. Marcus stopped walking. He stood in the middle of the property and read that sentence. He didn't make a show of it, she continued. He just his eyes.
And he said, "Olivia, I have been sitting on this board for 9 years waiting for you to say something like that." And then he said, "Now, let's talk about the Southeast expansion because I actually think your instinct on the market timing was right and your execution needs three specific corrections." And he had prepared notes. A pause. He had prepared notes. Marcus, he was ready to help. He just needed to believe I could be helped.
Marcus typed. How did the vote go? Unanimous confidence. Renick abstained. Which in this context is basically a concession.
The Southeast expansion continues with a revised operational timeline and a new people accountability framework that Chen actually helped design on the spot. A pause. It took 4 hours. I feel like I've run a marathon. Another pause.
I've never run a marathon, but I imagine this is it. He typed, "Go eat something." "I'm in the car," she wrote. "I'm going to my father's. He called me before the meeting and said, "Whatever happens, come home after, and I have soup." Something moved in Marcus' chest. He typed, "Good, Marcus." A pause longer than the others.
"Thank you for every conversation, every Saturday morning, every honest thing. I would not have walked into that room the same way without all of it." He held the phone, typed. You walked in. That was you. It was both of us.
She wrote back. Don't be modest. It doesn't suit you. He almost smiled. Typed.