The Fracas At The Wharton Conference
So how violent was the protest at Wharton's Private Equity and Venture Capital conference
today? Accounts of the disruption vary, with some claiming that punches were thrown and others saying that it was just scuffling or jostling.
As we first reported this morning, shortly after David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group had begun his keynote address, protesters from the Service Employees International Union swarmed the room, unfurling banners and shouting slogans, sometimes through a megaphone.
Eyewitness accounts report that around forty protesters were in the room (the Philadelphia Inquirer says only two-dozen), although protestors had been handing out fliers (click here to download a pdf of the flier or here for a grainy pop-up photo of the flier taken on the scene) outside the event earlier. Rubenstein was described as “speechless” in the moments after the protests began.
“They looked like they are going to kill the guy [Rubenstein],” a witness said over email as it unfolded. “They are on both balconies and have control of the floor. No sign of security. The speaker is in shock. One thing we now know about the venture crowd; don't count on them in a fire fight. You'd be better off with Donald Duck as a wingman.”
After a short time, a dialogue of sorts—as much as any back-and-forth that involves bullhorns can be described as a “dialogue”—began between the protesters, the audience and Rubenstein, lasting for between ten and fifteen minutes.
"Rubenstein remained on stage and agreed to address questions from a woman with a mega-phone, who said she was a Manor Care employee, and lit into him," George White of the Deal reports.
[More after the jump]
“A spokesperson of sorts began a rather predictable dialogue with Rubenstein about Carlyle's two-week-old purchase of Manor Care,” one witness said.
"I think a remedial English course would be helpful," Rubenstein said to the female protester.
Some in the audience offered less jocular responses, verbally abusing the protesters.
“One person in the front row called one of our spokespeople a ‘fat cow,’” Jule Eisenhardt of SEIU told DealBreaker.
The situation grew tense as the confrontation continued. Unlike many events in the past that have been subject to similar protests recently undertaken by the SEIU, this one seemed capable of turning violent. Many students in the crowd seemed agitated that the conference was being disrupted.
“The crowd had a large number of students, who are less inhibited than the typical attendees at these conferences,” Eisenhardt said. “They are not that deep in the industry. Usually people just stand back and wait for security.”
Witnesses at the conference reported that the situation turned “violent” and described the situation as “out of control.” There were reports that punches were thrown but Eisenhardt denies these. Witnesses who spoke to DealBreaker did not see any punches. One witness said that after the event he was told by others that there were “fisticuffs” between protesters unfurling a banner from one of the balconies and a group that attempted to stop them.
“There was lots of shouting and jostling but nothing violent,” Eisenhardt says.
Police were summoned to the hotel but did not enter the room, according to Eisenhardt. She tells DealBreaker that no-one was arrested and the protesters left on their own accord as the hotel security presence increased after about 30 minutes.
Private equity has been the target of many protests in the last several months. The SEIU organized a protest in the Hamptons last summer, as DealBook reminds us, “where protesters pretended to be billionaires and expressed mock opposition to raising taxes on private equity fund managers.” Weeks later, a private equity conference at the Waldorf Astoria was disrupted by protesters.
Eisenhardt said that the SEIU had not given the press any advance notice of the protest so that the group could avoid being stopped by security. She explained the purpose of the protest to Dan Primack at PE Hub: “We want to show that private equity has a responsibility to the community, just as any other investment class or industry would have. Right now, Carlyle and Rubenstein are involved in a number of different companies where there are serious questions about how they’re handling that responsibility.”
The story has now been reported on by the Philadelphia Inquirer, PE Hub, The Deal and DealBook. Photographs of the protest can be viewed here.
Comments
clap, clap...
Posted by: Anonymous | January 18, 2008 04:04 PM
isn't it fracas?
yes, i'm gonna be that guy
Posted by: AJ | January 18, 2008 04:08 PM
More relevant comment...
The SEIU spokeswoman was quoted as saying, "Usually people just stand back and wait for security." Umm are you fucking kidding me? Is she seriously complaining because some of the Wharton students yelled at her protesters and called one of them a fat cow? Shouldn't they be prepared for this kind of stuff when they storm a room?
Posted by: AJ | January 18, 2008 04:13 PM
Donald Duck or Donald Trump would have been better wingmen than the PE pussy brigade. Carlyle should hire Vayner to handle these outbursts - he'd have done a Chuck Norris on they ass.
Posted by: roguetrader | January 18, 2008 04:20 PM
I fucking hate poor people
Posted by: Anonymous | January 18, 2008 04:22 PM
Because Warren Buffett is worried about the growing gap between the "rich" and the "poor", I am going to worry about it, too.
Posted by: The Observer | January 18, 2008 04:28 PM
Poopies!
Posted by: Anonymous | January 18, 2008 04:34 PM
Does anyone know how to get brown stains out of cotton? Should I use cold or hot water?
Posted by: An anonymous Carlyle employee | January 18, 2008 04:37 PM
Heh heh heh....would have been a lot funnier if instead of Rubenstein it was ol' Crab Hands Schwartzmann.
That would have been hilarious.
Posted by: Lumbergh | January 18, 2008 04:57 PM
The woman in the picture really is a fat cow.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 18, 2008 05:00 PM
Who can think of the best reason for a Ron Paul Presidency?
I can think of thousands upon thousands
Posted by: WSJ Reader | January 18, 2008 05:02 PM
Lumbergh - if it was Crab Hands he'd have gone Burger King on that fat moocow. Oh, what I'd pay to see that.
Posted by: BSD | January 18, 2008 05:30 PM
Looks like a fat cow to me.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 18, 2008 05:49 PM
I hate fat poor people. And fucking. And fat poor people fucking is even worse. Because they make more fat poor people.
Posted by: Ahmaneedenajob | January 18, 2008 05:52 PM
Ahmaneedenajob - Self-hatred is unhealthy.
Posted by: Johnny Bravo | January 18, 2008 06:06 PM
Private equity conference at the University of Chicago 2/22 with William E. Conway, Jr. – Founding Partner & Managing Director, Chairman of the Investment Committee, The Carlyle Group speaking
Could be entertaining???
Posted by: Anon | January 18, 2008 06:10 PM
It gives someone a reason to actually go to a Chicago event, among those free-market libertarianists
Posted by: bigbro | January 18, 2008 07:10 PM
I was there. Two corrections to what Eisenhardt, SEIU's spokesperson is claiming about the event.
1) There were two police officers who had to escort the man holding the bullhorn out of the room. One of the officers had to drag him by the arm the entire length of the room (I was sitting in the back, by the door; I watched this). His entourage (not visible in the photo), including the woman referred to as a "fat cow," followed him out, with the second police officer bringing up the rear to make sure they were all out. These were not hotel security, but actually police officers ("POLICE" prominently written on their clothing, with guns). This only happened after at least 10 minutes of physical chaos up near the stage.
2) There was a press person sitting at my table who did not seem at all surprised by the unfolding events. After the protesters left, she waiting about 10 minutes, then left also, well before Rubenstein was finished. My immediate impression was that she had prior knowledge of the event.
I don't remember Rubenstein making the snide comment about the woman's English language abilities quoted in this article, but I couldn't hear everything he was saying because of the loud chanting of the protesters on the balconies. But in any case, the quote doesn't fairly capture Rubenstein's measured handling of the situation. His main message to the lady, which he repeated many times, was: Give us a chance, we've only owned the company for 2 weeks. After the protesters were gone and he restarted his speech, he began by talking about how he had grown up in a poor family with uneducated parents and been a failure in everything he touched until he founded Carlyle rather late in life. He made little reference to the protesters, only that when Carlyle first started looking at the company it didn't have a union, and also that PE people need to do something about their image and give back to their communities through philanthropy ("we'll give all our money away in the end any way, because we can't take it with us, so we might as well do it while we're alive so we can see the benefits with our own eyes").
Posted by: Anonymous | January 19, 2008 12:41 AM
12:41 - I was also there - closer to the front. Some may see this as callous, but a couple hilarious lines from the Rubenstein/"Fat Cow" dialogue:
1) Rubenstein: How long have you worked at Manor Care?
Fat Cow: Every day for 8 years
Rubenstein: Not today, apparently
2) Fat Cow: Don't you want to be taken care of when you get old?
Rubenstein: I'm already old
3) Rubenstein: I think a remedial English course would help
There were more than a few of us that were considering the legal ramifications of physically removing the protesters. One of my colleagues seated at the front table received an email during the fracas saying: "You're at the front table - get up and deck her."
Posted by: Treadstone | January 19, 2008 01:50 AM
Maybe next time the press can ask David about another health care company Carlyle only owned for "2 weeks" when disaster struck. LifeCare had the highest patient deaths of any New Orleans Hospital. Yet, Fran Townsend left this important fact out of the White House "Lessons Learned" report. Does David know why they got a free pass? He's got to love that, especially going into 24 potential wrongful death civil lawsuits.
Posted by: Alan | January 19, 2008 11:15 AM
Can we please make unions illegal already?
Posted by: Anonymous | January 19, 2008 02:53 PM
Rubenstein could have framed the issue better.
What he should have said:
Look Ms, if we do not sell your company to The Greater Fool (public equity) within six months, then you and our lenders will be in a heap of trouble.
You see, we borrowed a large sum of money to buy your company and pay ourselves a special dividend. We are depending on The Greater Fool to bail everyone out.
Why the special dividend you ask? Well that is an advanced commission for all of the fine work we will do to improve a number of Manor Care's operational metric's. I would rather not go into too much detail about these metric's as you clearly would not understand them given your educational shortcomings.
As the old saying goes, "Sh*t rolls down hill". Our lenders as you might imagine, have a substantial interest bill that comes due every quarter. Unfortunately some of that coin will have come out of your pocket.
So the more fuss that you folks raise, the less likely we will be able to market Manor Care to The Greater Fool. Of course, failure to do this will ultimately make your life and those of your co-workers exponentially more miserable.
So let's get to work! We only have 22 more weeks left to slap some lipstick on this pig!
Posted by: skip | January 19, 2008 04:40 PM
Rubenstein could have framed the issue better.
What he should have said:
Look Ms, if we do not sell your company to The Greater Fool (public equity) within six months, then you and our lenders will be in a heap of trouble.
You see, we borrowed a large sum of money to buy your company and pay ourselves a special dividend. We are depending on The Greater Fool to bail everyone out.
Why the special dividend you ask? Well that is an advanced commission for all of the fine work we will do to improve a number of Manor Care's operational metric's. I would rather not go into too much detail about these metric's as you clearly would not understand them given your educational shortcomings.
As the old saying goes, "Sh*t rolls down hill". Our lenders as you might imagine, have a substantial interest bill that comes due every quarter. Unfortunately some of that coin will have come out of your pocket.
So the more fuss that you folks raise, the less likely we will be able to market Manor Care to The Greater Fool. Of course, failure to do this will ultimately make your life and those of your co-workers exponentially more miserable.
So let's get to work! We only have 22 more weeks left to slap some lipstick on this pig!
Posted by: skip | January 19, 2008 04:40 PM
Rubenstein could have framed the issue better.
What he should have said:
Look Ms, if we do not sell your company to The Greater Fool (public equity) within six months, then you and our lenders will be in a heap of trouble.
You see, we borrowed a large sum of money to buy your company and pay ourselves a special dividend. We are depending on The Greater Fool to bail everyone out.
Why the special dividend you ask? Well that is an advanced commission for all of the fine work we will do to improve a number of Manor Care's operational metric's. I would rather not go into too much detail about these metric's as you clearly would not understand them given your educational shortcomings.
As the old saying goes, "Sh*t rolls down hill". Our lenders as you might imagine, have a substantial interest bill that comes due every quarter. Unfortunately some of that coin will have come out of your pocket.
So the more fuss that you folks raise, the less likely we will be able to market Manor Care to The Greater Fool. Of course, failure to do this will ultimately make your life and those of your co-workers exponentially more miserable.
So let's get to work! We only have 22 more weeks left to slap some lipstick on this pig!
Posted by: skip | January 19, 2008 04:40 PM
Rubenstein could have framed the issue better.
What he should have said:
Look Ms, if we do not sell your company to The Greater Fool (public equity) within six months, then you and our lenders will be in a heap of trouble.
You see, we borrowed a large sum of money to buy your company and pay ourselves a special dividend. We are depending on The Greater Fool to bail everyone out.
Why the special dividend you ask? Well that is an advanced commission for all of the fine work we will do to improve a number of Manor Care's operational metric's. I would rather not go into too much detail about these metric's as you clearly would not understand them given your educational shortcomings.
As the old saying goes, "Sh*t rolls down hill". Our lenders as you might imagine, have a substantial interest bill that comes due every quarter. Unfortunately some of that coin will have come out of your pocket.
So the more fuss that you folks raise, the less likely we will be able to market Manor Care to The Greater Fool. Of course, failure to do this will ultimately make your life and those of your co-workers exponentially more miserable.
So let's get to work! We only have 22 more weeks left to slap some lipstick on this pig!
Posted by: skip | January 19, 2008 04:41 PM
I refuse to read skip's rant, above, on principle. Due to the quadruple nature of the postage.
Posted by: J$ | January 19, 2008 04:49 PM
Treadstone above makes me really wish I'd been at that conference, specifically at the front table, so that I could have, in fact, decked the mooo cow.
Posted by: Anal_yst | January 20, 2008 01:07 PM
This is why poor people and unions suck
Posted by: Anonymous | January 20, 2008 03:10 PM
She's not fat , or a MooCow ... she has a gland problem and/or is big-boned .... have some sympathy people
Posted by: Fat guy | January 20, 2008 07:21 PM
Students were more agitated than the speakers? Never get in the way of an MBA student dying to get into private equity.
Posted by: anon | January 21, 2008 12:14 AM
That 'fat cow" does work most of you prissy wimps could not even comprehend.
There is, in my opinion, an MBA density factor.
The higher the number of MBAs in a health care organization the lower the quality of care.
Carlyle does not seem to understand the industry they bought into. Chuckle.
Posted by: healthcarethinktank | January 24, 2008 03:31 PM