Roger H Ballou

Roger H Ballou is the President and Chief Executive Officer of CDI Corporation www.cdicorp.com He is 55 years old. His salary cash package in 2005 was $567,500 USD plus $25,000 bonus. He also received stock options to the value of $2,270,000 in 2005. Source Forbes.com (2007). He has had his contract renewed effective from 1st January 2008 with a base salary of $750,000 USD per annum plus bonus and stock options. Source CDI

Roger H Ballou's response:

In summary, my personal experience of Roger H Ballou has been one of him refusing to address the issues that I have raised with him over a number of years. This started in 2003, when I lost substantial sums of money as a MRINetwork franchisee by working with someone (Mr JW) who CDI/MRI represented to me (and the whole of the MRINetwork for years) as a regular bone-fide franchisee. The reality was far from that.

The person that they continuously and falsely represented as a franchisee to me and to all other franchisees (Mr JW), dated from their acquisition in 1999 to 26th March 2003.

As a real and genuine MRINetwork franchisee, I worked as trained and encouraged by MRI with other MRI franchisees. I worked with Mr JW as I was led to believe that he too was a real and regular franchisee. Why, because that is how MRI portrayed him, not just to me, but to the whole of the MRINetwork. For details see Years of Misrepresentation by MRINetwork. Mr JW defaulted on payment to me in the same way that he had been defaulting on payment to MRI for years earlier. I then tried to obtain assistance from MRI Corporate office and in my opinion, I was treated very badly by Steve Mills, I raised a formal complaint and copied it to Roger H Ballou. Roger H Ballou replied and said that it would be dealt with by the newly appointed COO of MRINetwork, Ken Hagerstrom. Ken Hagerstrom, promised to respond to each of the points in my formal complaint. However, he did not do so. I spoke to Ken Hagerstrom about this and he told me that Roger Ballou had personally intervened to stop the response. Shortly after that Ken Hagerstrom left CDI/MRI.

Having my promised reply stopped by Roger H Ballou, I wrote (email) to Roger H Ballou about these issues in a formal complaint, and asked if and when the promised reply would be forthcoming, but he failed to respond. I wrote a several times repeating my request and increased to circulation list to include some MRINetwork franchisees. It was not until I did this, that Roger H Ballou eventually responded. I know that by that time, a number of other MRINetwork franchisees had also raised the issue with Roger H Ballou and 'encouraged him' to respond. They were not taking sides, they (like me) felt that it was improper that the Chairman and CEO should fail to respond to my formal complaint.

Roger H Ballou's eventual response was to appoint Joseph R Seiders (Senior Vice President and General Counsel of CDI Corporation) to review my 10 point formal complaint. It was then some 3.5 months after initially raising this formal complaint that I received something back - but not a lot!. Joseph R Seiders also promised to respond to my complaint but failed to do so. He responded, but not to any of the 10 points of my formal complaint. Instead, he created some 'imaginary theme' from my complaint and stated that they 'simply disagree' with that imaginary theme.

This response was a complete none sense. Firstly, there was no 'theme' to my complaint, they were 10 discrete and separate points. Secondly their statement of 'we simply disagree' was totally illogical and out of context to my complaint. Let me show you the first two items from my complaint to justify this view:

1. Duty of Care/Negligence: Why were we not warned about about the financial problems of another office that we were working with?

2. Coercion to sign a get-out clause regarding MRI Negligence. Shortly after I alerted Mr Steve Mills to the financial problems we had with Mr JW, and was led to believe that he could help recover the situation, he turned his attention to attempting to extract a 'get-out' clause against MRINetwork negligence. He then spent more time trying to get me to sign a legal get-out clause than working together on trying to solve the problem of our lost money and continuing to supply our client. He even resorted to saying (in writing and verbally) that unless we signed a get-out clause that he would not help us.

Now these two statements, are not statements that you can 'simply disagree with'. It may be appropriate to say, we don't think we should have warned you, because we believe it is reasonable that we falsely represented Mr JW to you and the network for years. Or that it was reasonable that Mr Steve Mills coerced to get you to sign a get-out clause but to 'simply disagree' with the facts is crass illogical stupidity in my opinion.

So my first interaction with Mr Ballou was one were I believe he was continually ducking the issues that I raised in the formal complaint. The dilemma he faces by doing this, in my opinion, is that he has never admitted that anything was wrong. This in my opinion is another crass decision as it implies that if it was OK then, it is OK now. So that situation that existed then could well exist now or in the future in MRINetwork as I do not believe they have ever been properly addressed.

Recent Correspondence to Roger H Ballou :

I have been continuing to write to Roger H Ballou to attempt him to address a number of issues. In general he has failed to even acknowledge receipt of most of my emails and where he has responded, it has been lacking in any detail or answering the questions. I will show my recent mails here below.

In summary they are:

1. Sarbanes-Oxley Concerns (1).

Issues relating to the legal requirements under Sarbanes-Oxley rules. Specifically (1) how much did he declare in the write-off of Mr JW's debt under his Sarbanes-Oxley rules, and (2) when did he do this, i.e. which quarter does it cover in the audited accounts. These rules are a legal requirement and failure to implement them carries very serious penalties. So far he has not answered either question. To view that letter and the background click Roger H Ballou-Sarbanes-Oxley.

2.Lack of answers.

Follow up on Roger H Ballou's lack of answers. To view that letter click Roger H Ballou - lack of replies (1)

3. Damage to CDI revenues and Loss of franchisees through Breach of Contract.

My perceptions of the damage and implications of Roger H Ballou's actions or inactions to the MRINetwork and the long term revenue losses that could occur. It explains why I believe that most, if not all, existing franchisees could choose to terminate their franchise agreements today, through breach of contract that I believe he has created. To view that letter click Roger H Ballou - Damage to MRINetwork

4. Truthfulness of Joseph R Seiders' Affidavit.

My concerns over the truthfulness of the sworn affidavit that his Senior Vice President, General Council and Secretary of CDI Corporation, Joseph R Seiders made to the Ohio Courts to avert my legal action against MRI. Read the facts and form your own opinion on the truthfulness of Joseph R Seiders affidavit statement made to the Ohio Courts. To view that letter click Joseph R Seiders' Affidavit

5. Sarbanes-Oxley (2).

My ongoing concerns over the lack of reply relating to the outstanding Sarbanes-Oxley questions raised in mail 1 above. To view that letter click Roger H Ballou Sarbanes-Oxley Concerns

6. Is Roger Ballou in Denial?

Roger H Ballou, in my opinion, made some astonishing declarations at his 2nd quarterly review of CDI financial results, on 26th July 2007. Roger H Ballou is on record and appears to have has claimed publicly that the points raised on this website are not true! Is he in denial? Read what he said and form your own opinion on Roger H Ballou's truthfulness to shareholders. To view this information click Roger H Ballou Denial

7. MRINetwork Misrepresentation (Years of)

Read about the years of misrepresentation by MRINetwork. Read how they represented someone who's franchise agreement had expired years earlier and who was in astonishing (and growing) arrears on franchise royalty payment was misrepresented for years as a genuine franchisee by MRINetwork. See how MRINetwork's senior management behaved when they knew a genuine franchisee who was mislead by MRINetwork's misrepresentation was about to work with him in the false belief that he was regular MRINetwork franchisee. MRINetwork Misrepresentation (for years)

8. Franchise Ethics - Steve Mills of MRINetwork denies responsibility

The facts are discussed around the consequences of the years on misrepresentation by MRINetwork leading to Steve Mills denial of responsibility. Roger H Ballou of CDI Corporation, owners of MRINetwork is asked if he denies responsibility too. Read the facts and form your own opinion on the ethics of MRINetwork and their owners CDI Corporation as a franchisors. Franchise Ethics - Steve Mills of MRINetwork denies responsibility

More facts and discussion to come shortly....