Chapter 3: Board meeting with a twist

She hung up not waiting for Vic to launch into another series of 20 minute goodbyes. The man could talk the back legs off a donkey… 'chatterbox' she thought smiling at how easily she let herself get into another highly likely awkward situation.

Regardless, time to work, another gruelling meeting with the board of directors of one of her companies. The meeting was called in as an emergency and she needed to attend as the majority shareholder. The CEO had called her the previous evening, and they spent the whole night talking about the plans to expand the company into East Asia. They were planning to break into China to secure more affordable manufacturing for some of their pieces before the launch of the new product.

Raven liked the CEO of this company, she never wanted that position, so she always kept majority of shares and hired professionals to manage them. It was exhausting and she didn't want to be bothered with the day to day running of companies, she'd rather spend her time in the lab, creating, improving and having technological breakthroughs.

Raven logged in on her assistant's account to join the meeting. Since it was an emergency, not everyone could go to the company headquarters so a lot of the board members were connecting remotely, just like her.

The plan was for her to listen in and only step in if it looked like the CEO could not handle the situation. He was a strong willed man and was excellent at his job. She liked him as the face of her company, even supported him to get his MBA from a prestigious US university to aid him into running her company successfully. She always believed in nurturing talents and providing self improvement benefits to her employees.

When her first company took off, she was still in high school but her parents always believed in studying as a way of improving ones skills; the first policy she brought in was to give her employees a yearly budget for training and studying. They could use it however they wanted to as long as they put their newly acquired skills and knowledge towards improving their work and of course the business. It could be anything, not even related to their job, as long as the skills they would gain would benefit them and her company. Everyone loved it. Some would use their training budget to pursue creative hobbies, and she was fine with it. The creativity those courses brought would then spark new ideas for the business or maybe just alleviate stress and make her employees more productive. It was well spent.

Half an hour into the meeting she was starting to get bored, this was called because of an emergency not for them to exchange pleasantries.

'what was the point of that' she thought when she heard a loud bang! from the computer screen. 'what in the world…?!'

In the door stood a very angry looking man, pointing a red fat finger at her CEO and shouting 'rapist' as he was being restrained by security.

'Now this was interesting' she thought, the only change on her facial expression being a raised eyebrow. Not that anyone could see it, but it was probably the biggest reaction anyone got our of her in a while.

She expected it, finally the reason why this meeting was called and she was ready. Her people already informed her that the board of directors wanted to oust the CEO because he was her right hand man. They were getting antsy and entitled. Repeatedly they have demanded for her to show her face and he constantly blocked them at every attempt.

It was so crude she couldn't help a chuckle.

' So these are the tactics you resort to… as if it could force my hand'.

She pulled the keyboard close to her and started typing something. Her fingers were flying off the keys, it was quite a sight.

As everyone was shouting and going crazy in the boardroom with the angry man struggling and refusing to let go of his anger, a loud screeching sound came from the sound system. It was time for her to work her magic.

Nails on a chalkboard, a very fitting sound for the current situation. The CEO was stunned, he did not expect anything like this to happen. She could've warned him last night, but then his reaction would've been less genuine...

One of the older board members was attempting to pacify the man who burst into their meeting. To an untrained eye it looked like he was doing his best to contain the situation and avoid a monstrous scandal in the company; to her it looked like a very weak and fake attempt to cover up that he was the one who caused all of this.

Robert DuVagne, the oldest standing member of the board in her new company was not happy. He was one of the old guard who always had a problem with being led by a woman. It did not matter that for the past 5 years he has lined his pockets and made a fortune, he wanted control of the decisions in the company, and hated that the appointed CEO was working hand in hand with the owner. As the majority shareholder, the founder and owner of the company, she had every right to call the shots. The company was soaring and many had their eye on leadership positions. Not that they could do a better job, no , they all thought their profits and success were due to the fact that the company offered a unique service that their customers liked.