Currently serving Apostle set to become $Billionaire

The catch-all forum for general topics and debates. Minimal moderation. Rated PG to PG-13.
User avatar
Dr Moore
Endowed Chair of Historical Innovation
Posts: 1812
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:16 pm
Location: Cassius University

Re: Currently serving Apostle set to become $Billionaire

Post by Dr Moore »

Tom wrote:
Mon Oct 18, 2021 4:10 pm
Dr. Moore, I noted that Stevenson took a leave of absence from ICON to serve as a mission president but continued to receive a base salary plus bonus during the mission term. I wonder if that is a typical deal for company executives who are called to serve as mission presidents.
My understanding is that mission presidents have significantly more leeway in terms of money. They're given a home and living allowance (actually, it adds up to a lot), but given a lot of flexibility in terms of managing personal financial affairs. I know of two mission presidents who remained active making rather complex investments during their missions, for example.
Tom
Area Authority
Posts: 613
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:41 pm

Re: Currently serving Apostle set to become $Billionaire

Post by Tom »

Dr Moore wrote:
Mon Oct 18, 2021 4:26 pm
Tom wrote:
Mon Oct 18, 2021 4:10 pm
Dr. Moore, I noted that Stevenson took a leave of absence from ICON to serve as a mission president but continued to receive a base salary plus bonus during the mission term. I wonder if that is a typical deal for company executives who are called to serve as mission presidents.
My understanding is that mission presidents have significantly more leeway in terms of money. They're given a home and living allowance (actually, it adds up to a lot), but given a lot of flexibility in terms of managing personal financial affairs. I know of two mission presidents who remained active making rather complex investments during their missions, for example.
Thank you. I refer to the language on page 33 of this 10-K.
“But if you are told by your leader to do a thing, do it. None of your business whether it is right or wrong.” Heber C. Kimball, 8 Nov. 1857
User avatar
Dr Moore
Endowed Chair of Historical Innovation
Posts: 1812
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:16 pm
Location: Cassius University

Re: Currently serving Apostle set to become $Billionaire

Post by Dr Moore »

Thanks Tom. Intriguing to read these old filings.
Tom
Area Authority
Posts: 613
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:41 pm

Re: Currently serving Apostle set to become $Billionaire

Post by Tom »

Quoting the Tribune article,
IHAQ wrote:
Tue Oct 12, 2021 1:34 pm
A church spokesperson said late Monday that Stevenson had received a special dispensation from church authorities, “resulting from his legacy shareholdings and his role as a co-founder of the corporation.”

“Such permissions are considered and granted under exceptional circumstances on a case-by-base basis, and are rare,” spokesperson Doug Andersen said in a written statement.
I wonder why Robert Gay was given permission to serve on the board from 2012 to 2021, when he was a seventy. He also served as an executive director for HGGC during his time as a seventy (I assume he was given a special dispensation in the latter case).

From the S-1:
Robert C. Gay

Mr. Gay has served as a Director since 1994, and will serve as our Lead Independent Director. He is Co-Founder, past Chairman and CEO of HGGC where, since 2012, he has served as an Executive Director. He is also Founder of Kensington Capital Holdings, a private family office and investment firm. Previously he served as a Managing Director of Bain Capital from 1989 to 2004, where he was one of the firm’s senior partners and Chairman of the firm’s Management Committee. Prior to Bain Capital, Mr. Gay served as a Principal in the Merchant Banking division at Kidder Peabody, Executive Vice President of the GE Capital Corporation’s Capital Markets Group, and as Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Co. He is also a past advisory board member and co-founder of Sorenson Capital and co-founder of the investment firm, KSV Global. Mr. Gay received a PhD in Business Economics from Harvard University where he also taught economics. He has served as a member of the board on multiple private and public companies, most recently as a director of Clene Inc. from 2015 to 2020. Over the course of his career, Mr. Gay has been actively engaged in several humanitarian efforts he helped launch including Engage Now Africa, Ending Modern Slavery, Ensign College of Public Health and Unitus Labs. We believe that Mr. Gay is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his educational qualifications and his broad industry experience in business management, financing and development, as well as the unique perspective he brings from the range of executive positions and directorships that he has held and currently holds.
(emphasis added; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data ... 60ds1a.htm)

From the April 1996 Ensign:
General Authorities to Leave Business Boards

The First Presidency announced on 18 January that because of increasing Church growth, General Authorities are being asked to withdraw from positions they may hold on boards of directors of business corporations.

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is now established in more than 150 nations and political entities,” the First Presidency said in a written statement. “Its membership presently exceeds 9,300,000. Within a short time, membership outside the United States will exceed that in the United States. With this growth comes an ever-increasing responsibility for the worldwide supervision of the work and the training of local leadership. This is placing greater demands upon the General Authorities of the Church.

“The primary call of a General Authority is his ecclesiastical responsibility. Except for family responsibilities, all others are secondary to this.

“In view of this situation, the First Presidency has suggested that General Authorities withdraw from membership on boards of directors of business corporations. This will include membership on boards of Church-owned corporations, as well as those of a public and private nature.

“So that there will not be any sudden disruption occasioned by the release of a number at one time, it is proposed that those involved will continue until the next regular annual meetings of the corporations with which they are associated, at which time they will resign or will not stand for re-election.

“We recognize that officers and boards of various corporations highly value the talents and wisdom of General Authorities presently serving. We are hopeful, however, that they will accept the need for our brethren to give their full time and energies to the work of the ministry.

It is anticipated that there will be one exception. With reference to Church-owned corporations, most of these are now subsidiaries of Deseret Management Corporation, which is owned by the Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Deseret Management Corporation will continue as a holding company with its board composed of representatives from the ranks of the General Authorities, the First Presidency said
.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... s?lang=eng
“But if you are told by your leader to do a thing, do it. None of your business whether it is right or wrong.” Heber C. Kimball, 8 Nov. 1857
IHAQ
God
Posts: 1533
Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2020 8:00 am

Re: Currently serving Apostle set to become $Billionaire

Post by IHAQ »

Tom wrote:
Mon Oct 18, 2021 3:50 pm
A few things I noted:

For FY 2021, Stevenson received a cash retainer of $40,000 for service as a non-employee director (plus $1,793,891 in "all other compensation," including "a loan initially extended in 1999 to Mr. Stevenson amounting to $990,660 and related payments of $803,231 in connection with the forgiveness of such loan in fiscal year 2021") (Draft Registration Statement - Amendment, filed June 29, 2021, p. 140).

For FY 2021, Robert Gay did not receive any compensation as a non-employee director (same).

Stevenson received a cash retainer of $40,000 for service as a non-employee director for FY 2020 (Draft Registration Statement, filed Mar. 26, 2021, p. 126).

As a non-employee director, Gay instructed that his cash retainer of $40,000 for FY 2020 be paid directly to another non-employee director (same).
Excellent research Tom. Given the PR statements about Apostles serving full time and giving up their other incomes, I think the Church has some explaining to do. I hope an investigative journalist puts in the same effort as Tom and starts asking these questions in the media.
IHAQ
God
Posts: 1533
Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2020 8:00 am

Re: Currently serving Apostle set to become $Billionaire

Post by IHAQ »

I find it interesting that Deseret News, MDAD and Sic Et Non have been completely silent about $lder $tevensons’ impending good fortune and ongoing temporal employment.
cinepro
CTR B
Posts: 158
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2020 6:34 am

Re: Currently serving Apostle set to become $Billionaire

Post by cinepro »

Tom wrote:
Mon Oct 18, 2021 3:50 pm
A few things I noted:

For FY 2021, Stevenson received a cash retainer of $40,000 for service as a non-employee director (plus $1,793,891 in "all other compensation," including "a loan initially extended in 1999 to Mr. Stevenson amounting to $990,660 and related payments of $803,231 in connection with the forgiveness of such loan in fiscal year 2021") (Draft Registration Statement - Amendment, filed June 29, 2021, p. 140).
This is what the document says about the forgiven loan:
In October 2020, the Company forgave the outstanding balances of $2.2 million of the 1999 loans. As discussed above, the loans were non-recourse and the issuance of stock was considered a stock option for accounting purposes. Therefore, the forgiveness of the notes was in effect a repricing of the options’ exercise price to zero. As a result, on the forgiveness date, the Company applied modification accounting as prescribed by ASC 718, Compensation - Stock Compensation in order to calculate any incremental compensation cost to be recognized. The modification calculation reflected assumptions pre-modification representative of the remaining loan maturity and associated assumptions of volatility and interest rate. Following the modification, there was no remaining expected life and the fair value represented the intrinsic value of the award. The forgiveness of the non-recourse loan represented a repricing of the strike price to $0, and the Company recognized incremental compensation expense equal to the principal amount forgiven, which amounted to $2.2 million.
Philo Sofee
God
Posts: 5017
Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2020 1:18 am

Re: Currently serving Apostle set to become $Billionaire

Post by Philo Sofee »

IHAQ wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 7:21 am
I find it interesting that Deseret News, MDAD and Sic Et Non have been completely silent about $lder $tevensons’ impending good fortune and ongoing temporal employment.
Of course they aren't going to talk about this. One may ignore inconveniences to one's putative testimonial knowledge, while maintaining that one has thoroughly investigated and now "knows this church is true," without listing all the unuseful truths that are out there. Best to just keep it simple...
User avatar
Dr Moore
Endowed Chair of Historical Innovation
Posts: 1812
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:16 pm
Location: Cassius University

Re: Currently serving Apostle set to become $Billionaire

Post by Dr Moore »

I see that iFIT postponed its IPO a few weeks ago, citing "adverse market conditions."
Typically when companies do this, it's because market volatility makes the IPO process problematic in some way.
Looking back, however, two things stand out:

1) October was a phenomenal month for growth stocks.
However,
2) Peloton, the market leading peer to iFIT, missed its guidance and issued a warning tonight (11/4), saying that q4 sales will be well below prior estimates. The stock is down 25% 30% in after market trading.

So it would seem, looking on the past few weeks, that business at iFIT very likely has also hit a post-pandemic wall, as demand for at-home fitness machines appears to have tapered rapidly, and it seems logical to assume this is the primary reason for shelving the IPO. I think it is not a stretch to surmise that Elder Gary will not be able to claim a "tres commas" fortune any time soon.
User avatar
Dr Moore
Endowed Chair of Historical Innovation
Posts: 1812
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:16 pm
Location: Cassius University

Re: Currently serving Apostle set to become $Billionaire

Post by Dr Moore »

Peloton shares are down 35% today. And they are the category leader. Imagine how poorly iFIT must be doing right now.

I’d wager Elder Gary’s stock is worth no more than $500 million today. He’s half way from a billionaire to a homeless bum.
Post Reply