WHEN some executives, like Home Depot’s Robert Nardelli, get fired, they make their getaway with a mega-million dollar farewell.
Others like Citigroup’s Todd Thomson are lucky to get away with their skivvies and their reputations.
Challenger Gray & Christmas, the Chicago-based outplacement firm, counted 1,478 chief executive departures in 2006, 12 percent more than the record set the year before. See if you can figure out which events below actually led to some of those 1,478 executives being canned (or resigning under pressure) by answering True or False to the questions below.
1. The CEO of a Maryland systems company left after he was accused of molesting a teenage girl when she was as young as 14 years old.
2. The chairman of an insurance company was fired after he stole coins tossed into a coffee can because he wanted to feed the poor at Christmas.
3. The head of a record company lost his job after he was caught selling pirated CDs at a flea market. The guy, who’d been making $500,000 a year, said the CDs were scratched.
4. The top executive of a senior center resigned after it was revealed that she’d hired a felon to be her organization’s top fundraiser and has a felony conviction herself.
5. The head of a major college’s athletic department was fired because not enough of his students got A’s in their courses.
6. The head of a technology company was fired after two women alleged that he made improper sexual advances toward them. He denied everything except that some conduct that “reflected poor judgement.”
7. The male head of an insurance company was fired after he – innocently the executive says – commented on a female worker’s new haircut.
8. The president of a local bank in Kingston, N.Y., was fired after a state trooper posed as a prostitute and recorded him on tape soliciting sex.
9. The female head of a large furniture chain got the ax after she offered to make a soufflé for a underling if he’d bring the wine and something to “grease my pan.”
10. A hospital severed its relationship with its chief after he was suspended because of domestic battery and unlawful restraint charges filed by his wife.
Answers.
1. TRUE. Former Integral Systems Inc. chief exec Steven R. Chamberlain left the Columbia, Md., company last April after it was alleged that he ingratiated himself to the girl, whose father died when she was 3 years old.
He received a suspended one-year prison term after pleading guilty to a fourth degree sex offense.
2. FALSE. Nobody uses canned coffee anymore in offices.
3. FALSE. Nobody buys CDs anymore – unless you’re talking about Certificates of Deposit.
4. TRUE. Pasadena, Calif., Senior Center CEO Angie Turner resigned after a local newspaper reported that she had been convicted of a felony in the 1980s for her involvement in an international heroin-smuggling ring. Earlier it was revealed that Fred Brito, a five-time convicted felon, has served as the chapter’s fundraiser under Turner.
5. Obviously, FALSE. Nobody expects student/athletes to get A’s.
6. TRUE. Brian Keane left as Keane Inc.’s CEO after the accusations. The company agreed to pay a vice president $1.14 million in a settlement, which also included her resignation.
7. FALSE. Most men never notice a woman’s haircut.
8. TRUE. Clifford Miller, 63, the president and CEO of Ulster Savings Bank, said he was innocent of the charges and that no money changed hands.
9. Patently FALSE. Nobody has time to make soufflés anymore.
10. TRUE. Galesburg Cottage Hospital chief Cory Countryman was fired last year because of the incident.
If you got zero out of 10 right you are a loser. You can expect to get a big fat severance package any day now. john.crudele@nypost.com