Jonathan Bush, CEO, athenahealth at Stanford Medicine X, 2016
Just last week I was speaking with a source after the story broke that athenahealth’s loquacious, charming CEO — Jonathan Bush — had physically assaulted his wife during a divorce and custody battle.
“If there’s any person who is likely to get in trouble with the #MeToo movement it’s him,” I told the source of Bush.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
And now Bush who championed the cause of healthcare transformation and was unlike any CEO I have ever interviewed has stepped down from the company that was his baby amid allegations of inappropriate behavior. Perhaps I should claim the mantle of Delphi of Oracle — just kidding.
On a more serious note, I had two in-person interviews with Jonathan Bush in 2011 and 2016 amid throngs of people and athenahealth communications professionals. Not an inappropriate word was uttered. Or gesture made.
But here was a charming, handsome man who has the ability to make you feel like you are the center of his attention. And yes, I did ask him some hard questions and when he didn’t have a good answer he made sure to have his communications team follow up.
Still, the vibe was clear.
He enjoyed the attention showered upon him by the media. And jaded by interviewing dry, buttoned-up CEOs — especially of public companies who are slaves to their share price — journalists also loved Bush. He tore up any playbooks meant for chief executives. Bush is unscripted, funny, larger than life.
But read some older stories written by reporters of Bush’s antics and you will know that we happily gave him a pass when things were not quite as kosher.
Here’s a December 2014 profile from Fortune [emphasis added]:
Jonathan Bush is having a lot of fun for a guy under attack. As he barrels around his 387-acre Maine resort at night in an all-terrain vehicle, weaving through trees and bumping over curbs, the co-founder and CEO of health care technology company Athenahealth doesn’t appear to be worried at all about a short-selling assault by hedge fund manager David Einhorn, who is very publicly betting against Athena’s highflying stock. Moments earlier, Bush—nephew of President No. 41 and cousin to No. 43—was regaling his guests with tales of the time he nearly had sex at Camp David. Now it’s past midnight, and he should really be getting to bed, because at 7 a.m. he’ll be leading a group on a jog to a serene but bone-chillingly cold pond for a swim. Then the ATV rumbles up to the “afterparty cabin,” where a few dozen venture capitalists, investors, health care startup CEOs, and Athena execs are playing drinking games, and Bush can’t stand to miss out. The night before he had ended up shirtless while playing something called flip cup. And when a Morgan Stanley portfolio manager, Athena’s largest shareholder, joked that he was selling his stock because Bush was buying everyone beer, Bush threw his hands in the air and yelled, “Yayyyy!!!”
In case you are wondering, that was at athenahealth’s fourth annual More Disruption Please conference in 2014. It’s not a bunch of guys hanging out over beer at the sports bar. It’s not locker room talk either.
But my guess is that if I were invited to this event, I would similarly write a glowing piece replete with vivid details while glossing over the obvious inappropriateness of Bush’s comments.
Why? Because we like the access and perhaps are a little dazzled by how the rich and powerful live. Because we are invited to get a sneak peak when so many are out on the outside. Because when it comes to sexual innuendo, or inappropriate comments, men are taught it’s a boys thing and women are encouraged not to be so sensitive. Journalists of either gender are not immune to such internalizing.
So such behavior will continue not only as long as victims suffer objectionable behavior silently but also as long as witnesses motivated by a variety of reasons besides fear do not protest it.
For the fourth estate, the model should be CNN’s Chloe Melas, who didn’t brush off what she perceived as inappropriate behavior toward her from Morgan Freeman but dug deeper.
When you see something, say something.
Photo: Stanford Medicine X
