Dental firm bites back over claim
THE bizarre boardroom brawl at Gold Coast dental group Smiles Inclusive has intensified, with the company issuing a blistering rebuttal to “misleading and misinformed” pronouncements by its off-side founder Mike Timoney.
The latest mud thrown includes accusations by ex-CEO Mr Timoney and former chairman David Herlihy that executive director Tracy Penn is “moonlighting” with a second job as a direct sales agent for Stampin’ Up!, a scrapbooking company based in Utah in the United States.
However, current chair David Usasz said Stampin’ Up! was “nothing more than Ms Penn’s personal hobby” and the accusations were “grossly misinformed and misleading”.
Mr Timoney and Mr Herlihy are seeking the removal of Mr Usasz and Ms Penn at next month’s extraordinary general meeting while the latter are looking to dump the former leadership team as directors.
The current Smiles leadership insists Mr Timoney and Mr Herlihy were dumped in the wake of poor performance.
The pair hit back, saying they were the victims of “renegade” directors who had resisted attempts to renew the board with executives with dental industry experience.
Mr Timoney and Mr Herlihy described as an “inconvenient fact” Ms Penn’s “moonlighting” as a demonstrator for Stampin’ Up.
“Yet bizarrely she holds the balance of Smiles’ board control and thus the future of Smiles Inclusive shareholders and dentists,” a statement from the Timoney camp reads.
Stampin’ Up! designs and manufactures decorative rubber stamp sets and accessories for home decor, greeting cards, craft projects and memory keeping.
It has demonstrators in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries where agents sell Stampin’ Up! products to clients, gaining a commission depending on the volume.
A visit to Stampwithtracy.com shows Ms Penn has been a demonstrator of the products since 2009.
However, the company, headed up by Mr Usasz and directors Ms Penn and Peter Evans, said Stampin’ Up! was just Ms Penn’s hobby.
“As a demonstrator, Ms Penn hosts a monthly stamp club in her own home; technique workshops; and classes for the profoundly deaf, all outside of regular business hours,” it said in a statement to the ASX.
Smiles said Ms Penn had been on one “incentive trip” since starting to work for the company.
“This trip was fully funded by Stampin’ Up! and Ms Penn took annual leave in accordance with the company’s annual leave policy.”
Another allegation from the Timoney camp is that Mr Usasz and Mr Evans worked to save Ms Penn’s job when they tried to terminate her employment, which would have ended her role as director.
Mr Timoney and Mr Herlihy said Ms Penn was given notice that they intended to terminate her employment on January 10 because of “sustained non performance” and was due to finish on April 10.
However, they allege Ms Penn struck a deal with Mr Usasz and Mr Evans to keep her job and vote to support their move to gain control of the board.
Smiles said this “purported notice of termination” wasn’t provided by Mr Timoney and the other directors until March.
“It was raised in discussion by Mr Herlihy, at around which time it had become apparent that he had lost the support of a majority of the directors (including Ms Penn). This timing seems unlikely to be coincidental,” Smiles said.