Billions of dollars lost and corporate intrigue: Inside the chaos at McMaster's high-profile innovation park
Former McMaster Innovation Park CEO files $4.2-million lawsuit against McMaster University for wrongful dismissal, alleging “financial mismanagement” at the school. The lawsuit is a window into the chaos at the park in late 2023 that culminated in the end of a $2-billion development deal.
Grant LaFleche, February 9, 2024, Spec.com
The man who once ran McMaster University's vaunted innovation park is accusing the school of firing him to avoid paying out a hefty bonus while attempting to cover up its own financial mismanagement.
In a $4.2-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed against the university and McMaster Innovation Park (MIP) on Jan. 23, Ty Shattuck claims the park, where he was the CEO, was being used as a scapegoat for McMaster's poor handling of its finances.
“McMaster was also taking steps to attempt to use MIP as a vehicle to mask financial mismanagement at McMaster itself and to attempt to blame MIP for McMaster's financial mismanagement,” says Shattuck's statement of claim, which also alleges he was on the cusp of delivering $2 billion in investment to the park when was fired in late November 2023.
The Spectator has confirmed some of the circumstances outlined in Shattuck's lawsuit, including that McMaster — which has poured tens of millions into the park over the last decade — moved rapidly at the end of 2023 to remove independent members of the MIP board of directors and replace them with university staff.
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