Inside Financial Services

The Nutty Ex-CEO

Here’s one for your ridiculous-litigation folder.

FORMER STERLING BANK CEO SUING FOR WRONGFUL TERMINATION

SPOKANE–The former CEO of Sterling Bank is filing a wrongful termination lawsuit for nearly $8 million. Heidi Stanley says she was fired for being a woman and having breast cancer.

Heidi Stanley started at Sterling Savings bank in 1985, working her way to CEO.

In 2009, Stanley was fired along with another bank leader, supposedly for the financial trouble the bank was in.

I’ll say this, the ex-CEO suing Sterling, Heidi Stanley, doesn’t lack for chutzpah. If you’re wondering whether her suit against the company might be without merit, trust me, it’s a crock, in my view. On the day Sterling fired Stanley in 2009 (the regulators delivered a cease-and-desist letter the very same day) the company was at death’s door, the result of years of brainless real estate lending. Heidi Stanley had been CEO of Sterling Bank since the start of 2008 and COO since 2003. She was also a director of the company’s mortgage lending unit. Under her management, Sterling became a walking zombie. It is a miracle the company even survived.

And now Stanley says she was fired because she was sick and is a woman? Ridiculous. This is the kind of things that makes you want a court system where the loser pays the costs. . . . .

8 Responses to “The Nutty Ex-CEO”

  1. jane doe

    mr brown doesnt have a clue about a thing!!!

  2. jane doe

    mr brown is all talk talk talk he hasent made a good call in years maybe he should consider a new career

  3. Greg

    The cease-and-desist order specifically ordered Sterling to fire Stanley. At least, that’s how I read paragraph 11 of the order: “On a monthly basis, … the Board shall provide a written update to the Regional Director describing the status of its search for a qualified Chief Executive Officer.” The clear implication being that the regulator did not consider Stanley to be “qualified.”

  4. CreamCheese

    Typo in the callout: “Stanley Bank” instead of “Sterling Bank.”

  5. jane doe

    Stanley was most likely making half as much as the other CEOs in her position and for you Bill who are you married to your mother

  6. Kim

    Well, I guess Mr. Brown was proven incorrect. Sterling tried to drag their case into Federal Court and it was thrown out yesterday. Ms. Stanley will still get her day in State court to explain her case for discrimination. It would be nice if the loser (Sterling, in this case) would have had to pay the court costs. Trust you? I think not. You don’t know what went on behind closed board meeting doors any more than the rest of the general public.

  7. Joel

    Reminders me of another yahoo, Carly Fiorina at HP.
    She drove that one into the ground too and then proceeded
    to leverage her “big time corporate expertise” as a
    political consultant and part time pundit…a dismal failure
    on all counts.

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