Former Swansea University academic Prof Marc Clement, who was sacked for gross conduct for not declaring an equity interest in the proposed £200m Life Sciences and Wellness Village project, received an email from then chief executive of Carmarthen County Council, Mark James, about setting up a secret trust, an employment tribunal has heard.
Mr Clement, the former dean of the university’ school of management and colleague Steve Poole were sacked for gross misconduct in 2919 following a protracted internal investigation. They both lost their subsequent appeals. They have brought an unfair dismissal case to a tribunal in Cardiff.
They deny wrongdoing in relation to the wellness village scheme in Llanelli in which the university was a partner with Carmarthenshire County Council along with the project’s development partner Sterling Health headed by Franz Dickmann. The project was shelved following the dismissals.
Mr Clement, who is representing himself as well as Mr Poole in the tribunal, claimed any equity stakes in what was only an emerging wellness village project, has been communicated to the university’s then chair of council, Sir Roger Jones. Prof Clement said any trust being offered to him by the private sector consortium behind the project, would have been diluted to only 4% on investment.
He stressed it would have been solely used to direct any profits for good causes and research into life sciences in south-west Wales. The tribunal heard that Sir Roger, during interviews with Diya Sen Gupta, the independent QC who led the investigation that preceded the dismissals, denied ever being told by Prof Clement of offers of any equity to him and other colleagues in the wellness village project.
He described Prof Clement as the sort of person you needed to “count your fingers” after shaking hands with and while highly intelligent and plausible, was not capable of "running a whelk shop.”
QC acting for the university, James Laddie, referred to an e-mail trail document in the tribunal’s 13,000 pages of evidence in which Mr James - who had at the time was still CEO of Carmarthenshire County Council - had contacted Prof Clement over legal advice he had received about setting up a secret trust.
Dated October, 2018, and sent from Mr James’ personal e-mail account to Prof Clement it said: “Appreciate you are in China, but I thought I would share a few thoughts on this. Under the discretionary trust there is no absolute guarantee that you or I would actually ever get the shares, as the trustees have complete discretion who they give them to. So I suspect it would not provide an assurance for the future. This might be resolved by a separate document from the trustees Franz and Phyllis (of Sterling Health) creating in essence a secret trust in favour of us. Or a self declared trust, eg that they hold in favour of us and all we have to do is take up the positions of chair/CEO within a set period.
“This is what one might term a second best legal option. Alternatively we can go back to the solicitor for further advice on how to ensure legally that the intended shares do come to us as soon as we crystalise a particular requirement, eg taking up posts. I would appreciate your views before we respond to Franz.”
The tribunal heard that the trust advice had been sent by associate of ASB Law, Eleanor Gadd, to Mr Dickmann, who in turn had forwarded it to Mr James. In the e-mail from Mr Dickmann to Mr James it said: “The attached (legal advice) is good news and meets our needs.”
Mr Laddie said the subsequent e-mail from Mr James to Prof Clement, didn’t included the attachment on the trust advice. He added: “We have no reply to this (from Prof Clement), so it is inconceivable that you would not have replied in some form or another?
Prof Clement said: “As Mr James states I was in China and I didn’t have access to my e-mails at that time my office secretary told me an e-mail had come in from Mark James. She either paraphrased it or read it to me. But I have no recollection or knowledge of ever replying to it.”
I didn’t ask if you replied, but whether you responded to it in one form other another,” said Mr Laddie.
“My recollection at time was that Mark James was in hospital as there had a fairly major road accident so I had no recollection of replying or responding to this email.”
Mr Laddie said: “Would you agree with me that Mr James is writing to you on the basis that his expectation was that the promised of equity was very real?
Prof Clement said: “Can you explain equity in what Mr Laddie.” “I am assuming it is Life Sciences Wellness village or some part of it,” said Mr Laddie.
Prof Clement told the tribunal that it didn’t. Mr Laddie, said: “Was Eleanor Gadd giving trust advice about another project?
Prof Clement replied: “I believe that is right.” Mr Laddie then said:” Was it another project where you were about to take up the position of chair and CEO in a set period.”
Prof Clement replied: “Not at all. Mark James is a lawyer, and by the way is also a person of deep integrity and achievement. What I was seeking to do was secure as much value to a trust for the people of west Wales. I did not want to take them directly (shares), but wanted to embed them in a trust for the good of the region.”
Mr Laddie referred to a statement made by Prof Clement during the investigation following his suspensions that equity stakes in documents drawn up by Mr Dickmann were effectively not real.
He added: “But as your evidence has gone on in the witness box, I wonder Prof Clement whether you have come to acknowledge that in your own mind that it was very real indeed? Whatever purpose, good or bad, for which you intended to put this money, you understood that you were going to be offered equity full stop.”
Prof Clement said : “Franz Dickmanm was engaged in a dozen or so projects, the Llanelli project initially as the journey started the other projects were in the vanguard. The Llanelli project we managed to make the pilot for the next work. And the goal was to ensure that any benefit from this emerging network across the UK and beyond that all of it was anchored in south-west Wales and the asset wouldn’t be stripped and that is why if the private sector consortium deemed my contribution worthy of acknowledgement. I was giving that away and putting it in a trust for the education and research in life sciences for the people of south-west Wales.”
Mr Laddie said: “If that is what you were really doing, you are some sort of Santa Claus figure and you would have declared it.”
Prof Clement said that he had declared “an emergent corporate structure.”
Sir Roger Jones
The tribunal also heard of statements made by Sir Roger to independent QC, Diya Sen Gupta, who oversaw the investigation process following the dismissals of the academics.
The tribunal then heard that while Sir Roger was aware of the wellness village project and a proposed new university and private hospital joint venture for the university in Kuwait, details were never disclosed to him as they were very much early stage.
In his statement Sir Roger said: “I know Marc Clement relatively well and have known him since the days of the WDA.”
Asked what he made of him, Sir Roger then described Prof Clement as being “very intelligent and plausible” but added “I do count my fingers after I have shaken hands with him.”
Mr Laddie then asked Prof Clement if he believed that meant that Sir Roger didn’t trust him? “I think it is subtly different, but not a million miles away,” replied Prof Clement.
Mr Laddie then referred to Ms Gupta asking Mr Jones in the interview whether he was aware of any university employees receiving promises of any financial interests or outside appointments in connection with the wellness village. Sir Roger replied: “Nothing until the time that I saw the retrieved e-mails following the suspensions.”
The former chair of the council also responded “no”, when asked if he was aware of any actual or promised board appointments or equity in relation to Sterling Health or the Wellness Village project for Prof Clement, Steve Poole and Bjorn Rodde.
Sir Roger said in his statement: “It is a biblical saying that no man can serve two masters and it is a pretty good one. These men could not have served the university and Sterling Health. The reality is I don’t think Marc could run a whelk store.”
Mr Laddie said;;“It is apparent that Sir Roger is completely believable when he said he knew nothing about jobs and potential shareholdings for a trust.”
Prof Clement responded that Sir Roger had asked him to stay on as dean of the school of management through to 2023 before his suspension.
He added: “He chaired the university council where it is minuted asking me to look after the vital cash generator for the university for the next five years. Maybe the school of management is not as important as a whelks store, but that statement I raise does strike a slight inconsistency in his view of me.”
The tribunal continues.
