In December 2022, Lee Ryan resigned from the board of Bering Straits Native Corporation. He had served on the board since 2013, and as chair since June 2022. Ryan was elected interim chair to serve out the remainder of the term of Henry Ivanoff Sr., who passed away in March 2022.
Ryan was elected chair to a full term at the annual meeting in October 2022, but resigned from the board just two months later. In his resignation announcement, Ryan claimed that he was leaving because his “role as President of Ryan Air requires a greater time commitment to the company as it is integrated into the Saltchuk family of companies.”
However, the Landmine has now learned through multiple sources that Ryan resigned from the board under the cloud of a board-initiated investigation into a sexual harassment complaint made against Ryan by a female executive. The complaint was made years prior. Sources within Bering Straits say that Ryan went to the hotel room of the female executive during a business trip and attempted to initiate an intimate encounter. She declined and he left, but she reported the incident to her superiors. Sources told the Landmine that the complaint was never dealt with.
After Ryan was elected to a full term as board chair in October, the issue resurfaced after Ryan made an inappropriate comment to the woman in Nome. Several people heard the comment, which led to the board hiring the law firm Perkins Coie to investigate the original allegation. Ryan resigned not long after the investigation was underway.
After Ryan resigned, Cindy Towarak Massie, who had been elected vice-chair in October at the same time Ryan was elected chair, became the interim chair. Three months later, the board elected her to serve as chair.
Massie ran against Ryan for chair in October, but lost to Ryan in a split vote. Gail Schubert, who was President and CEO at the time and also a board member, cast the swing vote that elected Ryan.
Two months after Massie was elected chair in March, the board voted to oust Schubert as president and CEO. She had served as CEO since 2009 and president since 2010, according to the announcement.
Although the board was split on electing a chair in October, the vote to oust Schubert was unanimous (Schubert and her sister Ella Anagick, who also serves on the board, were conflicted out of that vote).
Sources within Bering Straits report that Schubert voted for Ryan as chair in October, even though she was aware of the complaints against him. Ryan was an ally to Schubert, and she knew her position as president and CEO was secure with Ryan as board chair. The timeline suggests she was right. Schubert lost her position as president and CEO shortly after Massie became chair in March.
During this period, sources report the woman who made the complaint against Ryan hired an attorney and threatened litigation. Senior executives, including Schubert and Bering Straits general counsel Mary Pate, had been aware of the complaint but chose not to act, according to sources at Bering Straits.
The sources within Bering Straits report that the investigation concluded that the original complaint should have been dealt with when it was made. Brushing the complaint under the rug, the report found, had been a serious error.
The announcement to shareholders about Schubert’s departure said, “We would like to express our sincere appreciation for Gail’s remarkable contributions and dedicated service to BSNC throughout her tenure.”
Neither that announcement nor the announcement about Ryan’s resignation included any mention or reference to the complaint or board investigation.
Sources tell the Landmine that Bering Straits reached a high, six-figure settlement with the female executive who filed the complaint. As a condition of the settlement, the female executive is required to leave her job at Bering Straits. After Schubert was ousted as CEO, she was paid a multi-million-dollar separation package by the board. Schubert remains a board member.
A call and message to Lee Ryan at Ryan Air was not returned. In a phone call, Bering Straits said they did not have contact information for Gail Schubert. Mary Pate did not return a phone call and message.
This seems a bit different from a typical “Me Too” story in that one of the beneficiaries of covering up the alleged sexual harassment claim was also a woman. Of course we will see more situations like this as women gain more positions of power, though I’d imagine (or hope, at least) that they handle such situations better than the all-male boardrooms and C-suites of decades past.
Also, good on BSNC for ultimately taking the proper action and investigating.
Lee finally got caught, huh?
I am a shareholder of BSNC. I do not always see eye-to-eye with Gail’s decisions. But this is a buckshot to her character, puts in jeopardy to the business opportunities of BSNC, and puts at risk shareholder equity. That is where I find my interest in this. If the Alaska Landmine has information from multiple sources, was Perkins Coie one of those sources? Otherwise, there are only board members that have access to this confidential information. Does Alaska Landmine have the source documents to back up the findings of Perkins Coie’s privleged investigation findings? How about the board vote? As… Read more »
Were I a Shareholder, THIS would concern me:
After Schubert was ousted as CEO, she was paid a multi-million-dollar separation package by the board.
There are multiple levels of concern that are issues here in this public forum. You are not wrong. But are employment contracts public information? Executive employment contracts include negotiated separation agreements. Which by the way, are approved by the board of directors. If the board and/or Perkins Coie are disclosing and violating law then why is the public not being told what the board vote was for Gail’s employment contract terms? Where does the duty of care, confidentiality, and loyalty start and stop once it’s been breached? Because freedom of the press was to protect the United States citizens from… Read more »
Obviously the core issue is sexual harassment.
I know a bit about how that process operates.
If you are a board member being sexually harassed by another board member, your options are minimized even more than as an employee being sexually harassed by a board member.
At least that was what happened to me.
Trudy you’ll make some people nervous with comments like that. They would’t want their dirty laundry all over this dirty rag either.
Exactly, that’s why I said it. However, I wouldn’t drag people through the dirt here. That’s the difference.
I would love to share my recordings with Lee Ryan when I worked at Ryan Air for anyone interested.
It would be interesting to hear.
Wow. Shareholders are struggling…giving away separation packages do not make sense…removal of previous president/ceo makes sense without said package, including removal or resignation from our board…
Terry – the problem that makes me angry is that shareholders received a notice on the BSNC FB site that was linked. To this article.
Instead of the board bringing these issues to shareholders, “multiple sources” worked with the media ti have this article published in the public media.
Why are shareholders not being given information first? We are the owners of this private corporation and we are not being given information until it’s out in the public.
The level of detail in this article regarding vote outcomes and severance packages could only be known by members of the board. This indicates that confidential information left the boardroom which highlights that the current board is highly toxic and politicized. As a shareholder I call on the full board’s resignation because the level of dysfunction is damaging to the corporation’s reputation and ability to recruit and retain employees who can contribute towards accomplishing the mission of BSNC: improving the life of OUR people.
That is what I was wondering about, about who leaked the information. Because it seems like they would want it to be hush/hush.
Well said.
Sick
Why hasn’t the lady make a formal complaint! Any sexual harassment should also be reported to Alaska state troopers! And oh all that hard work to rebuild is going down the drain!
Thease are the very same people who stole our city’s 2.25 miles of land at Port Clarence Alaska from The city of Brevig-Mission Alaska they did not go through public process to legally untainte the stolen land from. The people of brevig mission Alaska.
Sounds like Gail was damned either way she voted.
This company doesn’t care about sexual harassment. We told management about women being bullied by a male government employee and they did absolutely nothing. He just kept doing it until the women either quit or were fired after he complained about the very subjective “quality of their work.” I’m not surprised at this going on all the way at the top. Rotten all the way through.
And do NOT even get me started on pay equity between male and female.
BS IS BS.