I last wrote about EC’s ex-CEO, the man I used to refer to only partly in jest as ‘our fearless leader’, some weeks ago. After all, now that Akaash is no longer part of that well oiled bureaucratic machine known as Equine Canada, why would I write about him any more? Well, a bit of news came my way a couple of weeks ago that I was interested to hear, and I have (correctly or incorrectly) assumed you might be interested to hear it too.
It seems I was not the only person who thought Akaash did some good work while CEO of Canada’s equestrian federation, whose name change a dozen years ago I will never, ever understand. Click here to see a photo of him receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, ‘for advancing Canadian and international equestrian sport’. Yes, that’s right. The man who was forced to resign from his position as CEO of EC (and some people are still getting their rocks off by saying he was fired) received Canada’s newest state honour because of his contributions to EC and equestrian sport. I do not know who nominated him for the medal, but I take comfort in the knowledge that I do not have a gaping hole in my head after all for thinking he was worth his salt. Having continued to mull over the ignominious actions of a few EC Board execs (and by laziness, negligence or cowardice ALL of the EC Board), and wondered where Akaash’s weaknesses truly lay – for surely he did have weaknesses in the plural as we all do – I’ve concluded that Akaash’s greatest fault is that he sometimes trusts the wrong people. What a flaw to have, to think too highly of those around him.
Akaash has moved onto other things in his professional life. He recently started his new job as COO of the appropriately wordily named Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption. If you want to know more about his new job with GOPAC, you can read his blog. Even though the new job has much more to do with what Akaash did for a living before treading upon EC’s hallowed floors for three and a half years, I’m sure he took away one valuable lesson from his time promoting equestrianism in Canada: that corruption can be found in the most surprising places.
One final note related to today’s theme. As of six months post-Akaash, EC has taken no steps toward replacing our fearless leader, but has thrown some of our membership dollars at a ‘human resources consultant’ who has been retained to identify what the EC CEO’s job description should really look like. If the Martians were watching they might come to the conclusion that someone isn’t seeing the woods for the trees.
