ORNGE official says he lied about his MBA
Rick Potter of ORNGE in front of fixed wing air
ambulance.
TBNEWSWATCH.COM/LEITH DUNICK
Rick Potter, who initially maintained he had an MBA, admitted to the Star that he lied on a document sent to investors and in his earlier response to the newspaper. Potter said former ORNGE CEO Dr. Chris Mazza put him up to it.
“I provided inaccurate information yesterday,” Potter told the Star on Friday. “To clarify, I was enrolled at Heriot-Watt (Edinburgh, Scotland) in the MBA program in the late 1990’s. My workload has precluded my ability to finish this program. It was suggested to me by Dr. Chris Mazza that it would look better in the prospectus if it was indicated I had completed this program. I agreed to do this,” Potter said in a written statement.
The prospectus Potter is referring to was the ORNGE Issuer Trust, a private bond offering in 2009 that secured $275 million funding that was used to purchase new helicopters and airplanes. A story published Saturday revealed that an analysis by the Star and ORNGE insiders could account for only $250 million of the money raised.
Police are probing numerous financial transactions, while provincial health investigators are looking into patient safety issues.
Potter is chief operating officer of ORNGE Air, the aviation division of the service. His biography on the ORNGE website states that he is a former air traffic controller, bush pilot and one-time dean of the Aviation Centre at Thunder Bay’s Confederation College.
In the 2009 prospectus, the credentials of top ORNGE officials are front and centre. Potter is listed as having an MBA.
During Mazza’s time at ORNGE (2005 to 2011) executives were encouraged to further their education and, as a December Star story revealed, at least $600,000 was spent by the air service for executives to obtain MBAs (master of business administration). At least seven executives were granted the degree, including one who did her studies in Canada and Europe.
Potter was not one of them. According to his statement to the Star, he had started taking courses years before at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, long before ORNGE was created. Heriot-Watt provides the online MBA as part of its “distance learning” program.
Potter told Mazza he had begun the program and Mazza, according to Potter, told him to include his unearned degree on the prospectus. Mazza has been unreachable for comment on this.
Potter is one of the last surviving senior members of Mazza’s executive team (Mazza and others have lost their jobs in the growing scandal). Potter lives in Thunder Bay but is flown weekly to Toronto, put up in a hotel, so that he can work out of the ORNGE head office. ORNGE says he also does some work at the Thunder Bay ORNGE base.
Beginning in early December the Star has tried to interview Potter, but until now he has never responded to our attempts.
The prospectus, prepared by Alf Apps and other lawyers at Fasken Martineau, was registered with the Ontario Securities Commission.
When the Star first asked ORNGE and Potter about his MBA, ORNGE’s new boss Ron McKerlie and others questioned Potter, who said he had the degree.
“Rick Potter took an MBA many years ago at his own expense, long before he became involved with ORNGE,” the Star was told on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Star was checking with the Scottish University, which was unable to find a record of Potter earning an MBA. The Star went back to ORNGE. McKerlie questioned Potter, who admitted to not having the degree, an ORNGE insider said.
ORNGE pilots and paramedics blame Potter for many of the decisions that are now causing the service trouble. Among them, the combination of medical interiors chosen and the type of aircraft selected and paid for with the $275 million bond issue. Ontario taxpayers are paying interest and principal payments back to those investors as part of the deal.
Potter’s name came up at Queen’s Park yesterday.
Progressive Conservative MPP Frank Klees accused Health Minister Deb Matthews of misleading the Legislature by saying ORNGE has new leadership, the Star’s Tanya Talaga reported. Pointing out that Potter and vice-president operations Steve Farquhar are still there, Klees called for a full housecleaning.
“These are the people who made decisions regarding protocol, dispatch changes. These are the individuals who failed to get sign off for equipment, a multi-million purchase of equipment. The reality is we have a serious, continuing problem at ORNGE, we continue to hear about incidents at an ongoing basis where paramedics are not available and pilots are not available,” Klees said.
Pilots and paramedics interviewed by the Star say the new aircraft have serious issues that compromise patient safety (for example, CPR could not be done inflight) and there is evidence of wasted money. For example, with Potter’s input, expensive “ORNGE Pickers” were designed and purchased — hydraulic arms that were supposed to lift patients on stretchers into the plane. The arms are not long enough, the Pickers have not been used and ORNGE will receive a partial credit for the machinery.
Also with Potter’s involvement, ORNGE purchased expensive (ORNGE has not yet released the cost of this system or the pickers) de-icing systems for the new AW139 helicopters, but they have never worked and ORNGE spokesman James MacDonald said there are concerns with the “reliability” of the system — a problem they are trying to solve with the manufacturer.
Perhaps most importantly, Potter has knowledge of the controversial $6.7 million payment from Italian helicopter firm AgustaWestland to one of Mazza’s for-profit companies after ORNGE paid $144 million to AgustaWestland for 12 choppers.
An ORNGE insider said Potter raised concerns internally about the optics of this payment to Mazza’s company. The payment was for “marketing services” and, according to McKerlie, the marketing service binder prepared does not justify the payment.
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