Comments on: What does the "F" in CFO stand for?

What does the "F" in CFO stand for?

psmealey — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:57:38 -0800

Pimping ain't easy. In a cluster of lawsuits gathered up by The Associated Press, the former chief financial officer of health insurance giant WellPoint Inc. is depicted as a corporate Casanova -- a world-class, love-'em-and-leave-'em sort of guy who romanced dozens of women around the country simultaneously, made them extravagant promises and then went back on his word with all the compassion of a health insurance company denying a claim.

Must be something he learned in B-school. Last year, HBO's chief executive was forced out after being charged with throttling his girlfriend. Before that, a Boeing CEO lost his job after admitting to an affair with a female underling.

By: psmealey

psmealey — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:58:47 -0800

"ABORT!!" Colby allegedly told her in flurry of text messages included in the lawsuit. "Get rid of it. Have an abortion and we can be together." Charming.

By: Eekacat

Eekacat — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:02:25 -0800

Before that, a Boeing CEO lost his job after admitting to an affair with a female underling. Awww, he was just taking her under his wing!

By: psmealey

psmealey — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:05:00 -0800

With all these old coots getting it on, makes you wonder Viagra might be a tad overprescribed.

By: crapmatic

crapmatic — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:05:19 -0800

Why is the emphasis on the corporations they represent rather than on the CEO's names?

By: sideshow

sideshow — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:09:38 -0800

Because big companies are eevvviiiiillllllll, remember?

By: waraw

waraw — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:11:03 -0800

That is exactly how I pictured Quonsar to look.

By: Razzle Bathbone

Razzle Bathbone — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:12:50 -0800

Pretty sure scumbags are found in all of societies stratas. That said, the picture of Colby on CNN is pretty dorky looking. Maybe the women thought if he looks like Howdie Doody he can't be a bad guy

By: ibmcginty

ibmcginty — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:42:02 -0800

Geez. If Colby were a character in "Thank You for Smoking," I'd have dismissed it as too over the top. Also, I hope never to be described in an Australian newspaper as a "plump love rat."

By: IronLizard

IronLizard — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:49:10 -0800

That said, the picture of Colby on CNN is pretty dorky looking. Maybe the women thought if he looks like Howdie Doody he can't be a bad guy He's getting revenge for high school.

By: phyrewerx

phyrewerx — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:49:58 -0800

""Stockholders and Wall Street professionals saw the Columbia University graduate as someone who "gave it to you straight,"" OHCOMEON!

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:55:31 -0800

Maybe I'm missing something here-- the guy sounds like a Class A asshole, and he's likely got some pathology going on-- but why should he be fired from his job, if he hasn't broken the law? I'm unclear what the lawsuits are about-- "emotional damage"? Of course I'm sympathetic to the women he betrayed and abused, but did he abuse his professional position in all of this? Pay them off with company funds? If you can fire somebody purely because of the circumstances of their private life, then I find this worrying, for obvious reasons.

By: Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese

Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:11:47 -0800

How is this any of our business?

By: psmealey

psmealey — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:12:08 -0800

It's pretty common for firms large and small to have "morals clauses" written into their contracts with senior executives. These are designed, I suppose, to protect companies from damage to reputation caused by an out of control exec or at a minimum projecting the appearance of advocating sleazy behavior. I'm pretty sure this reflects America's puritan mores rather than acting as an effective deterrent or solution. The one thing that had often befuddled me about the whole Lewinski thing in the 90s was that, any senior military or corporate official would have been fired for what it was revealed had transpired between the President and Monica. Don't get me wrong, I was totally opposed to the investigation, the impeachment and all its attendant nonsense, but it did strike me as patently unfair to everyone else that he got a pass on that.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:15:15 -0800

Previously.

By: quin

quin — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:21:17 -0800

Wow, Colby sounds like a real winner. I'm guessing that he was fired under the premise that his continued employment could be detrimental to the stock prices (I'm wildly speculating here), or perhaps it was some at-will clause. She also accuses him of stopping payment on her health insurance even though she had a kidney removed for donation last fall. I'd love to hear more about this one. The other things seem deplorable, but this could almost be criminal as well.

By: Eekacat

Eekacat — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:22:54 -0800

It's pretty common for firms large and small to have "morals clauses" I'm sure he thought it meant morale clause. He was just taking care of his own morale.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:28:20 -0800

This will Wellpoint.

By: anifinder

anifinder — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:41:46 -0800

The one thing that had often befuddled me about the whole Lewinski thing in the 90s was that, any senior military or corporate official would have been fired for what it was revealed had transpired between the President and Monica. The President is not a military or corporate official, conspiracy theories notwithstanding. His duties and responsibilities are outlined in the Constitution, and the Constitution says you can only forcibly unseat a President in office through impeachment. The only legitimate reasons for impeachment are "treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors" (Article II, Section 4). A lot of debate went on because of the ambiguity over whether Clinton's shenanigans in the Oral Orifice meet the criteria for "high crimes and midemeanors." In other words, the President has no direct "morality clause" written into his employment contract (the Constitution) the way officials in the private and military sectors might.

By: anifinder

anifinder — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:45:08 -0800

I should clarify: A lot of debate went on because of the ambiguity over whether perjury met the above criteria.

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:04:00 -0800

With all these old coots getting it on, makes you wonder Viagra might be a tad overprescribed. Presumably he wasn't relying on his own HMO to supply him in those quantities. If he had been, he'd be lucky if he could satisy even one of his thirty odd mistresses.

By: desjardins

desjardins — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:04:23 -0800

I don't understand how being an asshole is lawsuit material. Don't we all think our exes are jerks?

By: JaredSeth

JaredSeth — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:17:49 -0800

I guess I just can't keep up with the lingo, but how is womanizing "pimping"?

By: dasheekeejones

dasheekeejones — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:36:17 -0800

I'm so glad I never ran into him. *shudder*

By: notsnot

notsnot — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:37:33 -0800

What an ugly motherfucker. And he's not very attractive, physically, either.

By: Optimus Chyme

Optimus Chyme — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:53:20 -0800

what the fuck did they expect when a chunky old dude gives you a hundred fucking grand the first week he knows you, and you accept, what exactly do you think that makes you? "As for DiCarlo, she says that she met Colby through Match.com and that he proposed the first time they met in person. An engagement announcement for the couple ran in The Indianapolis Star in February 2006. But the two never wed. DiCarlo says she discovered he was living a "secret life," with multiple fiancees." no shit, stupid - DiCarlo may be a world-class scumbag, but I have no sympathy at all for these women

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:17:15 -0800

Whoa, with the accusations. Colby's not a player he just fucks a lot.

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:20:22 -0800

It's jerks like this that make actuarial statistic students realize their are hard working 12 hours a day for an asshole that will waste the money on golddiggers anyway.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:23:49 -0800

So he's a philanderer. Good for him, I say. We're jealous as hell, but then it's only "promiscuity" when someone else is having all the fun.

By: ericb

ericb — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:29:28 -0800

I'm sure he thought it meant morale clause. He was just taking care of his own morale. He was actually taking ~~one~~ dozens for the team back at the office.

By: bruce

bruce — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:48:29 -0800

why is the emphasis on the corporations they represent rather than on the ceos' names? because if somebody as obscure as you or i proposed marriage to twenty different women in six months, we'd have to self-link to get it on the page here. the sole element of newsworthiness about this is the corporate status, and the conclusion that a significant number of venerated captains of industry are actually just sloppy, lascivious horndogs.

By: AmbroseChapel

AmbroseChapel — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:28:08 -0800

Having read the article, he wasn't fired because he slept with a lot of women, nor is he being sued because he slept with a lot of women. What he did was sleep with a lot of women and promise them material/financial benefits which he didn't, or couldn't, deliver.

He bought a house and told a woman that he was giving it to her, so she moved in, but it turns out she's not getting the house and will have to move again.
He promised to pay for surgery for a woman's child and then went back on the deal, so now she has a huge bill which she can't pay.

So, these women aren't just feeling emotionally betrayed because he promised he would always love them or whatever, they're in financial and personal difficulties because he promised them actual concrete real-world things and they rearranged their lives on the basis of those promises. They may have been gullible, but they definitely have a case against him.

By: pax digita

pax digita — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:33:27 -0800

Don't we all think our exes are jerks? She has her failings, but "jerk" doesn't quite apply, come to think of it. I've made gentle fun of her behind her back, but mostly I feel sorta sorry for her.

By: longsleeves

longsleeves — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:00:06 -0800

To guess answers to the original question: Chief Fornicating Officer!? Funbags-lovin' Officer? Fancyrestaurant Officer? How did he keep so many women strung along? I mean, there were THIRTY of them! Is there a website that helps execs manage dozens of relationships in various area codes and time zones?

By: escabeche

escabeche — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:08:33 -0800

I liked this guy better when he was in Galaxie 500.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:13:33 -0800

Is there a website that helps execs manage dozens of relationships in various area codes and time zones? That's the entire business model of my "CEOhelper.com" web 2.0 venture.

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:52:55 -0800

You know who *else* was a Columbia grad, right?

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:53:18 -0800

(Holden Karnofsky)

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:54:03 -0800

Sorry, that was Harvard. Never mind. Er, Elle Hassenfeld. Ah, fuck it.

By: P.o.B.

P.o.B. — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:15:36 -0800

meh.

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:27:07 -0800

None of this makes any sense.

By: Dr-Baa

Dr-Baa — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:29:04 -0800

Ketchup! For breakfast!