Gov. Bob Riley, who has long been a friend and advocate of Chambers across the state, will also attend this important event beginning at 11:30 a.m. in the Harbert Center located downtown.
At the time, Ralph Stacy appeared to be all for the alliance. The CCAA press release states:
"The Partnership, a formal working relationship between the CCAA and BCA, has accomplished many great things in its short history, and recruiting a speaker of Tom Donohue's stature to our Annual Meeting is one of them," CCAA President and CEO Ralph Stacy said. "Our national economy is evolving, the direction of our country is in question and Washington is locked battle over our health care system. The U.S. Chamber and its leader are at the epicenter of each of these debates, and all of us are looking forward to his take on the events at hand."
Stacy would become a formal member of the BCA staff in January 2010, moving into the organization's headquarters. That is where, based on news reports, he apparently lost his life some nine months later.
Was Ralph Stacy's death what might be called a "standard suicide," driven by feelings of despondency. Our reporting, to this point, indicates the answer probably is no. Could he have been pressured into killing himself, under a threat to someone close to him? Was it perhaps not a suicide at all?
Business leaders, in Alabama and beyond, need to be pondering those questions. And they also need to look seriously at the kinds of people they have entrusted with key leadership positions.
Is it possible that Ralph Stacy, after less than a year at BCA headquarters, realized he had jumped in bed with a bunch of pit vipers? Had Stacy also become knowledgeable about the way BCA and its U.S. Chamber partners really conduct business?
Did Ralph Stacy, an ordained minister seeing ugliness all around him, want out? Was someone determined to make sure that Ralph Stacy, and his insider's knowledge, could not leave?
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