The reason I follow dead CEOs started with Dale Ratliff of Mountain Lakes NJ, former CEO of Playtex then located in Bergen NJ. ⁷
The Bennett's an Ratliff's shared backyards, Matt and Mitch Ratliff, Pete Bennett, Randy Grieg, Seth, and Rob S. were good friends, Pete had a big basement, we all used to play all night Monopoly, War or build the HO train layout in the attic.
Matt reach out to me
I was at the Contra Costa County software incubator the same day that a longtime acquaintance Tom Gonzales senior was in his office we all shared the same floor actually is IPO went off and I remember Tom saying to me AP I'm worth seventy-five million I walked by about 20 minutes later and he was worth 85 million or something like that.
Years later I saw Tom senior and Tom Jr in a bank in Lafayette and little did I know Tom Jr was dying of cancer.
They founded Distra Corp, which became commerce one which after going public became the darling of darling of Walk Street.
Years later Tom where his foundation ended up in a court room with the same wonderful attorneys connected to the Contra Costa bar Association.
The son of the former president of the bar is dead oh, so is the daughter of the former district attorney.
This is where theranos and Commerce One thread together via Balwani now being prosecuted by the SEC in connection to the failure of Theranos.
Some of the key investors came from Southern Pacific are linked to
