Few people will be surprised to hear that Gary Chapman did not reply to my email. I know that the original sent to him was delivered somewhere but of course I could not be sure that Gary himself had seen it. But, having also published it here, it is now inconceivable that he is not aware of its content. As a reminder, the email was prompted by requests for me to write to the Chairman of the group regarding the concerns of so many about how EG-IT is being managed. But I felt it only fair to make the President of the company responsible for IT aware of these acute concerns, thus giving him the opportunity to react to them. So now, given the lack of response, I will do as I promised some of you i.e. write to the Chairman.
You will have seen that, whilst writing to Gary Chapman, I took the opportunity to re-iterate to him the issues I have about the way my contract was terminated. Despite his previous disinterest in hearing any version of events other than those put forward by Patrick Naef, I wanted to be sure that the President of Dnata, who is ultimately responsible for breaching my contract, is aware of the facts. In due course I will publish previous correspondence to/from Gary Chapman and you will see (from a rare reply from him) how different his understanding of events was from reality. But when I corrected his statements, there was silence.
Of course anything other than silence to my latest email to Gary Chapman was going to present him with a problem. My question was both clear and fair - does he believe that the claims made in Malini Johnson’s termination letter to me are true and, if so, could he show me the evidence upon which it was based. But, by choosing silence he has effectively answered the question. The claim in Malini Johnson’s letter is specific but, nearly two years on and multiple requests later, not one example has been given to me. I think everyone is now sure that the claim that I intentionally refused to obey Patrick’s reasonable instructions is not only a total lie, but a lie which is fully endorsed by the company.
I sometimes wonder what position each one of the ‘gang of five’ has taken on the matter of my wrongful dismissal over the past two years and what position they will take in the future. Of course the plan was, as in previous cases, to just take a deep breath and wait for things to blow over. But the world is different now. The statements made in this blog are much more robust than other ‘new world’ communications, such as anonymous tweets which disappear as quickly as they arrive. The open approach to this durable blog, with the very important offer of a right of reply to any individual who feels that I have misrepresented anything, gives readers confidence in it. By not responding, the individuals mentioned in this blog are endorsing its accuracy. Given their acceptance of the situation, it is surprising that none of them has made any attempt to put matters right.
Malini Johnson knew the letter contained lies when she signed it. I am told that Malini ‘tried to defend’ me at the time and I would imagine that to be true. As I have stated before, Malini knew more about the real issues in EG-IT than most. But she obviously capitulated under Patrick Naef’s pressure and then hoped that I would take the usual bribe and resign. Now, the letter is a liability for her. Writing a lie about someone (i.e. libelling them) is hardly the smartest thing to do but it is even worse when it directly leads to a breach of contract. Malini has always had the option (and still has of course) to withdraw the inaccurate statements and put things right. All the time she fails to do so, the liability of that letter increases.
Gang leader Patrick Naef had put together a whole raft of misinformation about me to get his own way and clearly, as my manager, would have provided all the input to my termination letter. At the time, he would have seen his biggest challenge as getting Gary Chapman to support the sacking and he would have used his well oiled processes to achieve that. With Gary on board (comforted by the nodding Nigel Hopkins) HR would have been totally out of the equation before they were aware anything was happening to me, simply given ‘but Gary has already agreed’ assertions by Patrick. I was told that Patrick Naef was demonstrably disturbed by the fact that I did not resign and he would have spent an uneasy three months (as we packed our bags) worrying about me telling people the truth. I am sure he would have breathed a sigh of relief when we left Dubai without realising that, within just a few months, anyone anywhere could, with just the simple Google search term of ‘Patrick Naef’, discover that mis-information, even lies at times, are a cornerstone of his professional life.
From what I saw, Nigel Hopkins’ views on events were simply those of Patrick Naef and I can only assume that these will not have changed. Sophia Panayiotou’s strategy seems to have been to keep herself back stage, allowing Malini Johnson to take the flak. I doubt if that will change either.
But, by now, I would have expected a different approach from Gary Chapman who, as President of Dnata, has this shambles laying firmly at his feet. If he is thinking ‘why did I let Patrick Naef get me into this mess?’ he certainly will not be the first to do so, nor will he be the last I fear. Earlier on, once I appreciated the full extent of the misleading information given to him, I was not surprised that he had supported Patrick. But when it became clear to him that the briefings were based on lies and the advice given to him was ill conceived, I expected him to initiate a proper review and make his own decisions on how to act. Without such action, there is a danger that people will perceive Gary Chapman to be content that his organisation has no qualms about breaching a contract, nor about using lies to achieve dubious motives.
When I write to the Chairman, naturally I will just focus on current EG-IT issues and concerns, rather than my own experiences. There is no need for anyone to repeat earlier information and observations but, if any readers have anything new for me to include, please let me know via the usual channels. Of course, my promise of anonymity always applies.
As I write this, the total number of visits to this blog now stands at 25,398.
