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Apr. 18, 2018

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Defining Moments: Personnel Problems

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Fresnel Trust, an independently owned and run investment management firm, managed approximately
$60 billion in assets for clients in the private, nonprofit, and public sectors. Luke Fresnel cofounded the firm
nearly 20 years ago and went on to serve as both CEO and Chief Investment Officer for this company of about
200 employees.

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Fresnel achieved remarkable growth (twentyfold in less than 10 years) while adhering to the firm’s original
investment strategy and values: buying and holding for the long term, with a portfolio of leading growth
businesses identified through deep, proprietary research. As such, the firm didn’t “trade stocks” but rather
signed on clients willing to accept short-term market volatility to reap the long-term benefits of this investment
strategy. The firm focused on creating and maintaining trusting, long-lasting client relationships to make this
happen. “Prudence” was the firm’s watchword.

One day, Fresnel was traveling and received a call from his chief administrative officer about two employee
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situations. Although he did not normally get involved in every personnel matter, these were deemed important
enough to justify reaching out to him on the road.

The first situation, explained his chief administrative officer, involved Shamir Das—a 23-year-old man
from Bangladesh who had been hired into the firm about a year ago. Das was a strong performer and people
liked him. In everything from raw performance to cultural fit, he had exceeded expectations and thus was on
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track to having his visa status converted to a more permanent sponsorship from the firm. However, compliance
just sent an alert that their routine checks turned up an email in which Das had contacted a foreign firm about
hacking his ex-girlfriend’s cell phone. Although he hadn’t sent the email at work or during normal business
hours, Das had used his work email account and laptop to do this.

The second situation concerned an incident the previous night at Fenway Park, where the firm had hosted
a dozen employees plus their friends and families in the firm’s private box. John Coates, a high-performing
senior research associate, was among the Fresnel Trust employees at the game. After too many drinks, he was
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heard saying to one food and beverage employee that she was “not that good-looking” and was “so high
maintenance, her husband must be miserable.” He also told a member of the Fresnel Trust administrative staff
who was at the game that she was “semi-good-looking but would be better-looking if she dyed her hair.”
Another Fresnel Trust employee who was also in the box and overheard these remarks noted that this was not
the first time she had heard Coates say these kinds of things to the administrative staff member. She reported
that other people had clearly heard Coates’s remarks.

Having described both situations, the head of administration asked Fresnel what he wanted to do about
each. Considering yourself as Fresnel how you can mange both of the
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situations.

This case was prepared by James R. Detert, Professor of Business Administration, and Christina Black, Case Writer. It was written as a basis for class
discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  2018 by the University of Virginia Darden
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