The Peter Charles - 49. Chapter 49

The apartment wasn’t ready for occupancy, John Adams said they would need another couple of months to replace the heating system. Glen and I thought work was slow but John Adams explained that the building was idle for so long that a lot of the pipes had rusted and needed replaced. I knew John Adams would do a good job, so I didn’t push him. Nicky and Jamie had sorted out their rooms off campus, my priority was to have the apartment ready for Scott, Travis and Andy, if they were going to attend the university here.

With me going back to work, our normal routine kicked in. We did move Robby’s mom into one of the small houses. She was happy and there were plenty of times I’d see her at our dinner table along with Uncle and Jim.

I spent the week-ends, when fishing stopped, in my office catching up, I had company. Shawn would be in his office scanning the stock market, I thought he was scanning the US market, but he was scanning the world market.

“Dad, do you have shares Med Tech?”

“Let me check.” I pulled up the list of my personal stocks, I did have a modest investment in Med Tech. “Yes, I have five thousand shares why?”

“There stocks going up, fast.” I pulled up the market and the stock had risen fifty percent.

“Shawn, do you have a prospective on this company?”

“Not with me, Dad invested in this company. Let me checked.”

I called my broker and bought another five thousand shares, the climb was very steep. “Dad, I own twenty-five percent of this company. Dad bought it several years ago and through stock splits, he would have owned a major share, but now I do.”

“I think we should meet with these people. My guess is you are a major stock holder, this’ll give us leverage.”

For the next two weeks we watched the stock climb. There was definitely something happening. I got a copy of their last annual report, the report indicated they’re working on a medical device that could be used in the field similar to an MIR but to a specific area, not a whole body scan as the current units are designed to do.

I called the president of the company and told him we wanted to have a Board meeting to discuss this invention. At first he was reluctant, I told him Shawn’s name and asked him to have someone check the stock holdings. “Call me back with the arrangements.”

Two days later he called, sounding very apologetic, said the Board would meet two Saturdays from today. I called and made arrangements to fly over with Shawn.

We left Friday evening, flying over was exciting for Shawn. “Let’s try and get some sleep.” We slept about five hours on the plane, when we landed we were tired but not so tired that we needed to sleep. I checked us into a hotel and then took a taxi to the office of Med Tech. Walking in, there was no one at the reception desk, but someone had to be in the building as the door was unlocked. I picked up the reception phone and pushed the button for executive. When the person answered, I told them who we were and why we were there. In less than five minutes, the elevator opened and a young lady came out to meet us.

She was the presidents personal secretary, she introduced herself and took us to the office of the president. He was a cordial man, smiled a lot, I thought too much. After providing coffees for Shawn and I, we went to the board room. As we walked in, everyone stopped talking and looked at us.

I think the idea that the young man next to me owned 25 percent of the company puzzled them. It was obvious to me that they didn’t like the idea. We sat down after introducing ourselves. Shawn asked to see this portable MRI unit. The chairman of the board, made a phone call and soon a man in a white coat came with a device that looked like a phone, only larger.

Shawn wanted to see it work and so did I. The man demonstrated it on Shawn, who smiled the whole time. “How are you going to market this diagnostic tool?”

“We aren’t that far along on our planning.”

“Wait, you announce to the world you have this diagnostic tool without planning on how to market it?”

“Yes, we wanted the world to know, we thought once it was out there, hospitals would come and make offers.”

“That won’t do.” I could see that several members of the Board didn’t like what I said. I knew they wouldn’t like what was coming.

“Has this device been patented?”

“No, not yet”

“My son owns twenty-five percent of this company. As of today he and I will have a seat on this Board. The first thing we’ll do is to hire patent attorneys to have this device patented in every country. The next thing is to put together a panel of physicians to determine the value of this device. The fact that you have already announced it, means you won’t get the true value, but I have a way of adjusting what they determine.”

The chairman of the board looked at me, he wasn’t pleased. “We have to vote on it.”

“I think we should vote according to the number of shares we own.” Several board members didn’t like that, they didn’t own any shares.

“I also think that every member of the board should own shares in this company, otherwise you have no stake in the profitability of the company.”

It was interesting to note what happened next. “I’d like each board member to tell us how many shares you own in the company.” I was surprised that half owned no shares including the chairman. “Gentlemen, if you want to stay on this board, I suggest you call your brokers right now and buy a minimum of one thousand shares.”

Shawn and I left the room, I called my broker and increased my holding to five percent of the stock. I called Shawn’s broker in Scotland and had them increases his holding. I found out that his dad had an agreement to buy additional shares at the price he paid originally. I smiled and told them to buy as much as possible, “I want Shawn to be the principal stock holder.”

We went back into the board meeting, “Gentlemen, this meeting is adjourned until tomorrow at ten am. By then if you haven’t bought any stock in this firm, I’ll accept your resignation.

The chairman was indignant, “You can’t do that.”

“Yes, I can, as of now we own 65 percent of this company. If you don’t believe me check.” I put my hand on Shawn’s shoulder as we left the building. I was tired and I knew Shawn was tired.

“Dad, do we really own that much?”

“You do, your dad was a smart man, when he bought the first shares in this company he bought the right to buy additional shares at the price he originally paid, I told your people in Scotland to exercise that right.”

“My father was smart man.”

“Yes, he was.”

“My Dad is a smart man as well.”

“You’re tired and hungry, right?” He laughed, there was no doubt in my mind that his young man would follow in my footsteps.

We went and had a late lunch, at a restaurant close to our hotel, then we went to bed. I had a double room so Shawn and I slept in the same room. I left a call for a six in the morning wake-up call. I actually didn’t need it, I was awake at five thirty, habits are hard to break.

I called Glen, everything was fine at home, the boys where crabbing. School would start in a week, Nicky and Jamie would have their first class this coming Monday.

I briefed Glen on our meeting and arranged for him to meet us at the airport the next morning. I hated to be going back to work as soon as I arrived, I called Terry he said his first class was on Tuesday, he’d work the Monday for me.

We got dressed, had breakfast in the hotel, I made arrangements to have a taxi pick us up to take us to the airport. We left our overnight bags at the concierge desk. Arriving at the company’s headquarters, we were met by the technician who demonstrated the device. He wanted to speak to us before the board meeting.

“The device has one flaw, but we are working on it. When you monitor the heart, the photo isn’t clear. We think it is caused by the movement of the heart. I have an idea that will freeze the photo so it can be analyzed, but one may need several photos to get the overall picture. The board doesn’t want to invest anymore money into the project to continue with these improvements.”

“Thank you for telling us that. Prepare a presentation outlining what you intend to do and associated costs. If you can get that done before the meeting is over, I’ll call on you to present it.” He smiled and I got the idea he already has had that presentation.

We headed to the board room, there were a few people missing from yesterday’s board meeting. The chairman was still there, he scowled when we entered, didn’t bother us. Everyone sat down, “I’m assuming if you’re here you have bought or owned stock in the company.” They nodded their heads except the chairman. Looking at him, “Do you own stock in the company?”

“No, but my company holds the loans on this building.”

“I see, what is the name of your company?” It was a loan association that made a practice of having someone on the board of the companies that borrowed money from them.

“How much money did your firm loan to Med Tech?”

“One million US dollars”

I looked at Shawn, we smiled. “I’d would like to see the contract your firm has with Med Tech. Do you have it?”

“No, but they have it here.”

“Good, I’d like to see it now.”

“There isn’t anyone here who can get it.”

Just then the secretary, who we met yesterday, walked in. “Do you know where the agreement between Mr. Chambers company and Med Tech is stored?”

“Yes”

“Could you get it and bring it to me, please?” I could see that our chairman wasn’t pleased about this. I took the break to announce that Glen Schumer would have a place on the board, he owned twenty thousand shares of stock. Shawn smiled he knew that it was my stock, but he didn’t know that it was only half, I had the other half.

The young lady brought the agreement. I asked her to sit, “As of now, you’ll be the secretary on the Board and will record all actions taken.”

She smiled as she sat down. I began to read the agreement, “This agreement is illegal.” He looked at me, “The interest payments are above the legal maximum set by your government. I see that you have two choices, apply the excess payments to the principal or I go to the government and enter a law suit.”

He got up and left. While I waited till he came back, if he did come back, I asked that the technician we spoke to earlier to come and make his presentation. Shawn and I sat back and listened. The other members of the board, also listened. I noticed a few smiles as the young man proceeded. I got a feeling that the absence of some of the board was appreciated, even the chairman.

When the presentation was done, there were a few questions asked. I wanted to know how far along he was in making these adjustments. He looked at me, I smiled. He then went and told everyone how far along he was. As he was finishing, the chairman returned. He marked the agreement paid in full. I told him to sign it. He did and resigned at the same time. Now we needed a chairman, “Where is the president of this company?”

The young lady smiled as she went to the phone. “He’s asking for you.”

After about fifteen minutes and older man entered the board room. He introduced himself as Doctor Stein. “Dr. Stein, why aren’t you a member of the board?”

“I spoke to Mr. Chambers, he said it wasn’t unusual for the president not to be on the board.”

“I think it is unusual for the president of a company to not be on the board. I think you should be the Chairman of the Board. The other board members agreed. “Now Dr. Stein, tell us about this investment in this young man’s project.”

Dr. Stein looked at me, “When we found the flaw, James came to me with a proposal. I couldn’t approve it in total, that would need the Board’s approval. So I funneled money to him from other projects that where winding down.”

“He made a very interesting proposal to the Board. Since you are now Chairman of the Board, what is your position?”

“If the Board approves, we’ll fund this project. It seems according to our accounting department, the sale of our stock has enriched our bank account so we needn’t borrow anymore money to continue our research.”

“Have you thought how you’ll introduce this product to the market.”

“Our new product introduction people have surveyed the market. This is a novel unit, which will save hundreds of lives. They think it’ll sell very well.”

“How about patent protection?”

“Actually, we have a patent department that patents all of our devices. In addition, James has built in a safety factor, that if someone buys one and takes it apart, they’ll not get it to operate again as design.” With Doctor Stein as Chairman I felt a lot more confident. The meeting adjourned, we headed back to our hotel, picked up our luggage and headed to the airport.

“Dad, I thought my dad was smart, but you are just as smart.”

“No, Shawn, your dad was smarter than I’ll ever be. I’m glad some of it rubbed off on you.” That was exactly how I felt. I didn’t do any magic in the board meetings, it was just common sense.