ABOUT US: Michael Moles
Hi! I was a nineteen year veteran of Ontario Hydro’s Research/Technologies Division, until fired in November 1996 for insubordination. If you check my resume, you will see an over-educated scientist who has been building automated inspection equipment (very expensive, specialized, adult "toys") for the last fifteen. Actually, without wanting to blow my own trumpet too hard, my work record is quite good … that’s one of the reasons why I reacted strongly to the Incorrect Selection which evolved into Hydro-gate..
Resume; Phil Wong 1, documents/phil_wong_1_2.gif; STAGE 1. Job challenge; THE CASE Chronology
Originally from Britain, I have visited over sixty countries (many by back-packing), and lived in Switzerland and Zambia. Since arriving in Canada in 1975, life has been a lot more stable, and we have lived in Toronto since 1980. Sharon and I married in 1978. She was a ninth-generation American from Baltimore. Very unfortunately, she died of leukemia in October 1994, right in the middle of Hydrogate. Sharon was a sociologist, who taught part-time at the local college and spent a lot of time making sure her kids were brought up right. She had backpacked around South America on her own for six months, before I met her. Sharon was known for her ‘beautiful mind’.
We managed to survive Sharon’s unexpected death, partly because we had to, and partly because Sharon gave me specific directions on what she wanted doing for the next couple of years. Besides, she gave us a puppy dog to act as a ‘mother substitute’. (It was a brilliant move.)
I had a distinctly ‘elite’ education in class-ridden Britain: my high school claims to be the oldest school in the world, and Cambridge University is definitely for the scientific elite. After graduation, I decided to find somewhere more ‘egalitarian’ to live. My first real job was operating a copper mine in Zambia; I originally went out to help the blacks (how naïve!), but quit early because life was grim. After getting malaria, hepatitis and amebic dysentery in one year, I had a much better understanding of the Third World. Eventually I immigrated to Canada, which I had always viewed as my likely destination, and later got a job with Ontario Hydro.
In the early days, Ontario Hydro Research was a near-utopian place to work; unique, challenging work; no serious funding problems; good pay; short work day; good vacations; great location; lots of friends; friendly, paternalistic bosses; but lousy ‘government’ as Hydro-gate shows. After a while, the bad government became too much.
ONTARIO HYDRO Ontario Hydro Technologies
As a person, I typically support underdogs, and occasionally had been active in student and work ‘politics’. In a handful of instances, I have run minor crusades against the ‘system’ and its perceived wrong-doings, whether school, university, or employer. I hadn’t been in any tangles of significance for fifteen years prior to Hydrogate. However, I try not to get into wars, because life runs much better with collaboration than confrontation. Democratic collaboration is how we used to run our research contracts, and it allowed us to compete successfully with much larger outfits.
Having been fired by Ontario Hydro, I started my own consulting company helping other small Canadian companies do specialized ultrasonic inspections. In this business, its who you get to know and how good your reputation is. Surprisingly enough, being fired for insubordination actually improved my scientific reputation, and my consulting business was fairly active, if not lucrative. Fortunately, automated inspections are a ‘hot’ market niche. There’s work out there … it just wasn’t very profitable!
Since July 1997, I have worked in Sales & Marketing for a hot-shot Canadian equipment manufacturer. The contrast between Ontario Hydro and this company is like night and day: in this company, Management says what it wants, wants what it says, and helps you get it. People are honest, energetic and motivated; and there are no lawyers within sight or smell (no offense please, Mr. Richard Darrah).
