It did look a little fishy. At a conference in New Orleans last week, a man who identified himself as an assistant secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development apologized on behalf of the federal government and promised a rapid reversal of policy: city public housing projects that were scheduled for a controversial demolition would be renovated instead.
A suspicious reporter called the housing agency’s press office, which determined that the man, who shared the stage with Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana, was an impostor. The Yes Men, a group of activists, had organized the stunt to protest the government’s plan to demolish the buildings, which the group says will prevent low-income residents from returning to New Orleans.
The ruse also put the public relations and crisis-management firm Hill & Knowlton on the defensive. The pranksters had used its name in announcing the conference. “These hoaxers have absolutely no connection to our firm,” read its statement, attributed to Gene Reineke, the chief operating officer of Hill & Knowlton U.S.
Sallie L. Gaines, a senior vice president of Hill & Knowlton, said that despite being forced to send out an image-fixing press release, the firm was “not in crisis mode over this.” JULIE BOSMAN
TO THE RESCUE Over the years, Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive of Apple Computer, has had a somewhat contentious relationship with the news media. Most recently, Apple sued a Web site, seeking to learn the identities of anonymous sources that had leaked it confidential information about Apple products (a suit Apple lost).
But last week, Mr. Jobs was asked by Reporters Without Borders, a journalism advocacy group, to intercede on behalf of two Chinese reporters who were facing a $3.8 million lawsuit by a Taiwanese contract electronics manufacturer, Foxconn. The company, which assembles iPods for Apple, accused the reporters, Wang You and Weng Bao, of “smearing its reputation” in an article criticizing working conditions.
Apple said that the report of labor abuses was false and that it was now “working behind the scenes” to resolve the dispute between Foxconn and the journalists. Foxconn has since dropped its request for damages. LAURIE J. FLYNN
CANNED Novelis Inc., an Atlanta-based company that supplies the aluminum for Coke and Budweiser cans, fired its chief executive, Brian W. Sturgell, last week, just 18 months after promoting him to the job.
But what an 18 months: soaring prices for raw materials squeezed the company against some fixed-price contracts with its customers. And then there were accounting errors that led to an earnings restatement, missed deadlines in filing reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the hurried renegotiation of some loan terms because of those delays.
Deciding to look for a C.E.O. with experience running a public company, the board passed over Novelis’s chief operating officer, Martha Finn Brooks, in favor of its chairman, William T. Monahan, Mr. Monahan wrote in an e-mail message. ELIZABETH OLSON
MILLION A MONTH When he negotiates his next employment contract, Douglas A. Pertz can honestly say that his last job paid more than $1 million a month.
When he signed on in May as the president and C.E.O. of Harman International Industries, which makes JBL and Harman/Kardon audio systems, Mr. Pertz was promised a base annual salary of $850,000, or about $70,800 a month.
But when he resigned in August, Mr. Pertz received more than $3.8 million in “severance compensation,” according to a company filing with the S.E.C. PATRICK McGEEHAN
MAN OF THE WORLD He still sounds Canadian and he definitely has Canadian roots. But the chief executive of the German-owned Chrysler Group, Thomas W. LaSorda, is now entitled to an American passport.
Mr. LaSorda and his wife, Doreen, took their citizenship oaths last month after passing a 10-question test. Mr. LaSorda, born in Windsor, Ontario, actually is entitled to dual American and Canadian citizenship, said Jason Vines, Chrysler’s vice president for corporate communications.
Mr. LaSorda took the step mainly to ease issues with immigration, Mr. Vines said. Chrysler executives often travel back and forth between the United States and Germany, the home of the parent company, DaimlerChrysler. MICHELINE MAYNARD
THE (PRAIRIE) DOG HOUSE When Wal-Mart wanted to build a new supercenter in Lafayette, Colo., it faced an unusual obstacle: a colony of prairie dogs on the 31-acre site. When efforts to relocate the prairie dogs failed, Wal-Mart exterminated the animals, poisoning some and gassing the rest.
The prairie-dog fuss is the first dust-up for Leslie A. Dach, a former White House aide in the Clinton administration and public relations expert hired recently to do damage control for Wal-Mart. Mr. Dach, who was awarded a stock option package worth $3 million, reports to Wal-Mart’s chairman, H. Lee Scott Jr.
A spokesman, Gray McGinnis, said Wal-Mart and the city considered several options to relocate the prairie dogs, but none were feasible. AMY CORTESE
