Chapter 14 - West Enterprises Learns To Stand Alone
Eighteen months later, West Enterprises appointed a new CEO, Natalie
Brooks.
She had no relationship to the Bradford or Garrett families.
Her first strategy was boring.
Reduce leverage.
Sell two noncore properties.
Slow acquisitions.
Strengthen cash reserves.
Shareholders initially complained.
Then performance stabilized.
Blue Horizon moved forward in phases.
No nine-hundred-million-dollar fantasy.
No miracle.
Just a project with realistic assumptions.
Bradford Capital gradually reduced its debt exposure as West refinanced
with independent lenders.
Rosalie supported that.
The goal had never been to own Garrett through debt.
It was time for West to become financially independent in reality, not
mythology.
Rosalie remained a thirty-percent shareholder.
She attended meetings.
She asked hard questions.
She no longer sat in the chairman’s seat unless she was chairing
something.
The memory of Bianca in that chair became almost funny.
Almost.
At one annual meeting, Thomas Reed joked:
“Should we put names on the seats?”
Rosalie smiled.
“No. Let people earn the authority instead.”
May you like
The room laughed.
This time she did too.
