An employment tribunal has rejected a joint case brought by former Swansea University academics Prof Marc Clement and Steven Poole for unfair dismissal after being sacked for gross misconduct.
I have followed the story closely since the two were suspended back in November 2018, alongside the university’s then vice-chancellor Prof Richard B Davies - it was not only a huge Welsh story, but a UK one too.
Their sackings were related, in the cases of Prof Clement, the former dean of the university’s school of management, and colleague Mr Poole, for not disclosing personal equity stakes - as set out in the institution’s ordinances - in the proposed £200m Life Sciences and Wellness Village project at Delta Lakes in Llanelli. The now shelved project was a joint venture between the university, Carmarthenshire County Council and Sterling Health - which was appointed the scheme’s private sector developer in a procurement process in which it was - surprisingly - the only bidder.
Both Prof Clement and Mr Poole, in a tribunal that lasted just over two weeks, said that equity had been assigned to them under the project by Franz Dickmann, chief executive of Sterling.
The gist of their argument was that charts showing them with personal stakes equity were reflective of the early stage of the project and that new companies and ownership structures would needed to have been created on fundraising not just the £40m earmarked from the City Deal for the Swansea Bay City Region - via the UK and Welsh governments - but private backers too.
Prof Clement claimed that his proposed personal equity has been approved by chair of the university’s governing body, in its council, Sir Roger Jones. In statements that Sir Roger gave during disciplinary process the tribunal heard that Sir Roger was not told of any equity stakes, but was of the university’s early stage involvement in the wellness village and a proposed joint venture project in Kuwait for a £600m private medical university and hospital.
Mr Clement stood to have a 24% stake in a trust from Sterling’s interest in the wellness village while stressing it was purely an altruistic move to channel profits from wellness projects to fund good causes and research into life sciences in his home town of Llanelli and the wider region.
However, whatever his intentions, whether a burst of altruism or personal greed, his proposed stake - which he said would have been diluted to 5% on private sector investment - should have been declared rather than a late in the day talk of vague involvement in "emergent corporate structures."
More than 30 equity charts from Sterling were widely shared and presented to potential investors in the wellness village. If they were not to be taken seriously, why were the claimants content for them to be shown to potential investors knowing them not to accurate? QC representing the university, James Laddie, said such knowledge would be tantamount to fraud. During cross-examination Prof Clement said he would not commit fraud, so one can only conclude that the charts were therefore accurate.
Mr Poole only made a declaration in January, 2018 - months after equity charts had been drawn up Mr Dickmann, after they came to the attention of the university’s then finance director Rob Brelsford-Smith who raised concerns. That declaration didn’t specify his equity stake of 5% and £125,000 towards a discounted executive home. He was also offered a further role as chief executive of Sterling at some future point succeeding Mr Dickmann on a salary of £250,000.
Prof Clement’s professional relationship with Mr Dickmann pre-dated the early stage plans for the wellness village as they were both former directors a firm called Kent Neurosciences which was dissolved in 2018. The sacked academics also had assigned roles in the proposed Kuwait project.
Prof Clement resigned from Kent Neurosciences in August 2015, before the company entered into a 10-month exclusivity deal with Carmarthenshire Council to be the wellbeing village's development partner in 2016.
In a EU procurement tender exercise, for which there was only one bidder, the contract was awarded to a newly-created company in Sterling Health.
Prof Clement and Mr Poole were sacked in 2019 following an exhaustive investigation, overseen by independent QC Diya Sen Gupta. They both lost subsequent appeals and now their claims for unfair dismissal.
We can argue whether the university sector in the UK gets too much equity in spinout projects created by academics and should be lowered to encourage greater commercialisation activity. But this was nothing of the sort and the claimants failed to disclose their own personal interests for a project that has hardly knee deep in new ground breaking academic created IP; and after stripping out plans for life sciences research the wellness village’s commercial value would have been driven by new homes and other infrastructure like hotels.
With such control at the heart of the university’s commercialisation agenda sitting with Prof Clement, corporate governance at the university went missing.
A ludicrous argument was made by the claimants that their sackings were driven by a personal vendetta of its then registrar, Andrew Rhodes - who had only been in post for a few months in 2018 before the suspensions.
This was a man doing his job, while many others might have sought to conveniently sweep things under the carpet. He didn’t sack the academics, this was the outcome of a through investigation, overseen by independent QC Diya Sen Gupta, and then a decision of the university’s disciplinary panel.
What if Mr Rhodes has joined say six months or a year later when the wellness village could have been far more advanced? He was also a victim of some pretty vicious trolling on social media. The tribunal was told that prior to the suspensions Prof Clement had only met Mr Rhodes on two occasions with a combined duration of less than 30 minutes. Mr Rhodes should be commended for doing the right thing, in a country once described by Geraint Talfan Davies unflatteringly as “the land of the pulled punch.”
The City Deal’s initial governance structured seeded too much control and oversight to Carmarthenshire County Council. The regional cabinet was chaired by then chief executive of Carmarthenshire Council Mark James.
What emerged in the tribunal was a email sent from Mr James’ personal email in October, 2018, to Prof Clement around how both could set up a “secret trust” for their equity stakes.
Prof Clement denied, under cross-examination from Mr Laddie, that its was related to the wellness village, but then couldn’t explain if not, what Mr James was referring to.
Now that email is in the public domain Mr James has been contacted to be given an opportunity to explain he thinking and context for the email. Some have claimed that the fact that an investigation by regional organised crime unit for southern Wales, Tarian, into the procurement of the wellness village project didn’t result in any prosecutions, meant the disciplinary process was null and void. They were two completely different things.
The police investigation didn’t result in the Crown Prosecution Service pursuing prosecutions.
However, it is worth noting a later revised statement from the police. It said: “There was evidence of potential criminal offending identified and secured against individuals and companies subject to this enquiry and this was submitted as part of the file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service, who made their decision that it was not in the public interest to proceed with any prosecutions.”
Both Prof Clement and Mr Poole had every right to bring an employment case - but for Swansea University it was never going to consider ‘blinking’ and agreeing a settlement for it to go away. Its decision to sack the two for gross misconduct - and the process that lead up to decision - has been vindicated and what the tribunal has highlighted is never again can Swansea University, or any institution, allow such unchecked power to be vested in one individual.
Prof Davies still intends to bring his own tribunal case against his former employer for unfair dismissal.
Read Next: Private sector backing of Swansea Bay City Deal
Read Next : Swansea Bay City Deal projects
