11.5- The New Protocols

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. Episode 11.5, the new protocols. We left off last time with the 2244, which saw a complete turnover of Omnicorp's board of directors. It was the end of an era, and no matter what, this would have been a momentous turning point in the history of the company. Vernon Byrd and his geriatric board had been in power for nearly ninety years, and now suddenly, they weren't. So whatever happened next, Omnicorp would be moving in a new direction. But it is a really super momentous turning point in the history of Omnicorp and the history of humanity generally because it just so happened that this new direction led directly to the Martian revolution. Now the first thing the new board of directors did was select a new CEO. If you will recall from last time, after the death of Vernon Byrd, the board of directors, or more precisely the aids and secretaries who were actually running the show, announced that Karen Killingsworth would replace the late bird on 03/08/2244. Her tenure as CEO wound up lasting just over nine months because on 12/12/2244, the new board of directors convened for the first time, and their first order of business was electing a new CEO. Maybe, I don't know, somebody under the age of, like, 75. There were several contenders for the job. High ranking Omnicorp executives who commanded enough support among the new members of the board to consider themselves viable candidates. And though obviously we know who's actually going to win, there are two names I wanna throw out there because both of them will come back. One was Jin Wong, who had risen to become head of the legal division in the late twenty two thirties. The other was Kamal Singh, who was head of personnel. Both were powerful and influential executives, especially given the autonomous latitude division heads had acquired during the later Byrd years. But neither Wong nor Singh commanded as many votes on the board as young Timothy Werner. Werner was not only the youngest candidate by far, he was still only 45 years old, but was also still technically just another executive from the finance division, not even its leader. In age, seniority, and title, Timothy Werner sat well below both Wong and Singh. But Werner had three big things going for him. First, he had become the face of reform in the twenty two thirties and early twenty two forties. Second, he was popular with the shareholders. And third, both the Warner's and his in laws, the Cartier's, were enormously influential among the s class elite. And so it was that when the board of directors convened, they selected Timothy Warner to be the new CEO of Omnicorp. He received 34 votes. Singh received nine. Wong received seven. And two other nobodies who you don't need to worry about each got one. So young Timothy Warner is now CEO of Omnicorp. Just to wrap up one part …