Chapter 4 - THE RESTRUCTURING
The Vale Recovery Foundation held more than the rehab building.
It owned:
the main treatment campus,
two sober-living properties,
a research grant portfolio,
and a donor endowment worth approximately $31 million.
Its bylaws required independent approval for any sale or long-term lease of major assets.
Mara had blocked one proposal three months earlier.
Adrian’s proposal.
He wanted the foundation to outsource campus management to a private company called Northpoint Behavioral Holdings.
Why?
Efficiency, he said.
Better scale.
Professional operations.
Reduced liability.
Mara rejected it after reviewing the economics.
Northpoint would receive a twelve-year management agreement, control vendor selection, and collect fees tied to bed occupancy.
Too aggressive.
Too commercial.
Too much incentive to keep beds full rather than patients well.
Adrian called her emotional.
That word again.
Now Mara discovered Apex Transition Partners was connected to Northpoint.
The consulting payments were not random.
They were advance transaction costs.
Someone was preparing the outsourcing deal without board approval.
Someone expected Mara’s vote to disappear.
Celeste’s return from rehab was part of that expectation.
Why?
Because Celeste held one foundation board seat inherited through the family charter.
She had been inactive while in treatment.
With Celeste voting beside Adrian’s allies, Mara could be outnumbered.
Adrian did not steal Mara’s fiancé from Celeste.
He recruited Celeste against Mara.
May you like
The affair made it personal.
The board arithmetic made it useful.
