DPW: is silence golden?

Essa Kazim has been named as Chairman and Yuvraj Narayan as CEO. Kazim comes to DPW from the Dubai International Finance Centre where he served as Governor and from the Borse where he was Chairman. Narayan is an internal appointment stepping up from the position of Group Chief Financial Officer, a post he has held since 2005.

In announcing the new appointments DPW made no comment about Sulayem or the method of his departure. Did he resign, was he pushed, various media announce his departure in different ways. Indeed, throughout the media storm about Sulayem and his close linkage to Epstein, including insight into various revealing communications between the two, DPW made no comment about Sulayem or his alleged actions. Silence has been the only response throughout!

Undoubtedly for DPW a main driver behind Sulayem’s departure was the adverse reaction of financial entities with whom the company transacts significant business. The UK development finance agency and Canada’s second-largest pension fund, La Caisse, said early on during the breaking media storm re Sulayem and Epstein that they would suspend all new investment with DPW. Since the new appointments have been made both companies have reaffirmed their commitment to working with DPW.

It should be noted that being mentioned in the Epstein files is not in itself confirmation of wrong doing – nevertheless from an observer’s point of view the facts presented by various email communications seem pretty damming. They certainly seem to flow against DPW’s stated Code of Ethics which contains statements such as: “we set rigorous ethical, professional and legal standards for ourselves…”

This, in turn, begs the question is it acceptable for an organisation where a senior executive has departed under a cloud to make no comment on the ethics of the situation? To effectively reiterate the need to maintain standards to all employees and thereby offer added reassurance to all customers.

Silence is not always golden!