Point2 Technologies CEO Resigns, Pleads Guilty in Sex Case

I want to comment, but I don't know what to say. :-/

I think I'll just say that having pt2 as your provider doesn't reflect badly on you any more than folks with a shamed Senator in a mens toilet get busted for trying to hook up in said toilet- we didn't expect those folks in that state to move to another state. Life goes on. Sorry for the loss of a friend and the hurt his family is feeling. Benn

There are many victims here, the young woman and her family, his wife and children, and all those people including you, who believed he was a ‘nice person’. But ‘nice’ people at times, do ‘ugly’ things. With that said…..

A while ago you made a comment on another blog regarding buyers who made racist comments and chastised me for my approach when encountering them. Turnabout is fair play, so here is your statement followed by my question/comments:
***
Jay: But I won't work with people that I have a fundamental opposition to -- liars, criminals, cheaters and racists.
***
I think ‘pedophile’ would fall under ‘criminals’, don’t you? I know you don’t “work” with Wendell Willick, BUT, you pay dollars to a company whose profits end up in his pocket. Now that he is ‘exposed’, are you going to keep feeding the monster and justify your decision because they are the best provider around or are you going to stand by your convictions and find a new provider?

I’d rather work with a racist, at least they are upfront about their beliefs and I can choose to deal or not deal with them. Pedophiles who hide behind religion are just scum of the earth and once exposed I couldn’t continue to support them no matter how good their company is.

There are 110 great people here at Point2. I can’t speak personally for each one, but I can try and sum up the feelings of a vast number of us. As you might imagine we have gone through every emotion. Anger, fear, sorrow, disappointment, and embarrassment to name a few. For a while many of us felt as if the sins were somehow our own. They are not. Susie, you were bang on when you said that there are many victims and I would ask you to consider the great staff here at Point2 as victims also.

We too share the values and convictions that you espouse. Susie I want you and everyone to know that while Wendell was in fact our CEO and a shareholder, he does not own the company. In fact he was not integrally involved in our day to day operations. He is no longer affiliated in any way with Point2 and even now steps are being taken resolve the issue of his relatively small share holdings.

Please reconsider your statements and give 110 great people a chance to move forward and hold their heads high.


Brendan King
COO Point2
BKing@Point2.com
www.Point2.com
www.Point2homes.com
http://point2agent.wordpress.com

Thanks Brendan.

Susie - a couple of things. First, you quoted one line from me in a lengthy conversation, and provide no link to that conversation. I don't think that's quite fair. I could quote one thing YOU said in that conversation:

"The only color I care about is the color of their money and if it is green, we are good to go."

Doesn't sound so good standing out there all alone and out of context does it?

For the record, the entire "conversation" Susie refers to is here:

https://www.reliberation.com/blogs/yourlifetime...

Now if I may address your questions...

Yes, I use Point2 as a web provider. And yes, I will continue to use them. You aren't comparing apples to apples here Susie. You're not even comparing fruits to vegetables.

There is a significant difference between knowingly putting a racist, criminal, liar or pedophile in your car and selling them a house, and utilizing the services of a company that at one time had a criminal working for them.

First, as was pointed out in the original post, the linked article and now Brendan's response, Wendell no longer works at Point2. So your question, "Now that he is ‘exposed’, are you going to keep feeding the monster and justify your decision..." is ludicrous. I am not "feeding the monster" -- Mr. Willick is no longer associated with the company.

How you can say I continue to support Mr. Willick by paying for my web serivces is beyond me.

If someone were to say they would never associate with a known criminal -- including buying products or services from a company where a criminal once worked -- then one best be prepared to live naked in the woods and live off the land.

Do you own a car? Do you wear clothes? Do you eat?

I suspect there are criminals CURRENTLY working at car manufacurers, at clothing makers and retailers, and in the food service industry.

Question for you: If you bought a Ford automobile, and then heard a story that a Ford employee had plead guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor, what would you do with your Ford? Sell it? Give it away? Would you never buy another Ford again?

OK, so let's say you chose to boycott Ford cars for all eternity. Do you honestly think there isn't some criminal working in ANY OTHER car manufacturer? Are you going to run a criminal background check on every employee in every company you do business with?

Point2 provides a great product, with superior customer service. The fact that the FORMER CEO has personal legal problems, even the fact that he may well be a pedophile has ZERO to do with my using the product his FORMER company provides.

Please explain to me how I "continue to support" Mr. Willick when he isn't even associated with Point2.

I am also a Point 2 customer and while I am more than offended by Mr. Willick's behaviour, I've never personally dealt with him. I have, however, had the good fortune to "speak" on-line with several of P2's support staff. I was actually surprised to learn here that there are only 110 employees of P2! Hailing from a customer service background in insurance, I cannot believe that P2 delivers the service they do with so few employees.
I would also like to say that during all of this, Point 2 employees have made it transparent to it's members and their customers. I cannot even begin to imagine the turmoil they have been going through, but they remained professional, helpful, and courteous. And when the issue was "resolved" legally, they were honest and upfront about it.
My heart goes out to the primary victim and the innocents who have suffered because of Mr. Willick's actions.
I will continue my business with Point 2 because they take my business seriously. I'm not doing business with just one person. I have 110 dedicated people backing up my one-woman show!

This is a note to Susie:

Susie in my opinion you have issues far greater than the vindictive post you made. That is if your name is even Susie.

I have used Point2 almost sine their start up. I will continue to use them. Although Mr. Willick "was" associated with Point2 it certainly does not change what they are or what they provide.

I am sure that the staff and family of Mr. Willick have suffered and your comments lack compassion for them as well as for someone that did something very wrong. I don't believe when you were issued a soul that you were also given the charge to judge and levy out punishments or in this case advice. There is a higher authority that has that charge.

So Susie or whatever your name is, keep your hateful comments to yourself since you disgust me. And while your at it, go out and get a life since you add very little to the world today!

Poor Susi, theres allot of emotion here because livelyhoods are at stake from P2 employs all the way to the agents who use their service to make money. Stop being whiney because you need to make a change or find another resource! Think clearly people, employees can find other jobs. Agents can find other resourses without having to associate themselves with a company whos ceo is knowingly a pedophile.

As for discounting the involvement of a CEO, well, that's about the dumbest thing I ever heard.

"For the last five years Willick, fought the charges, saying the girl was a willing partner"

Heres the article
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/8/142465/1.ashx

...she was 14! So for the past five years employees made the decision to keep working for this guy because she was a willing partner? Am I the only one who thinks men touching a 14 year is old is wrong?

Was the fact he touched a 14 year old not news worthy and no one knew?

Why didn't that company fall apart in 2002 when the girl came forward and he didn't deny it? He just said she was willing.


Keep telling yourselves being associated with this company isn't wrong. He's already been taking your money for the last 5 years being a known pedophile, you just didn't get the news or ignored it back when the girl first came forward.

I'm so glad you all think stepping down was "the right thing to do" when the only reason he did it was because this girls family will probably come after everything he owns in a future laws suit for the damage he has done.

Carolyn,
Last I heard, and I live in the US, not Canada, but I believe the justice system is similar....Innocent until proven guilty. The P2 folks had no idea what to believe and where to go. I applaud them for doing their jobs to the best of their abilities, no excuses, and continuing on.
I've worked for a man who was ultimately convicted of an offense lesser than this. But it was still a disappointment (it was financial). I didn't even really like him and had my doubts but until he was proved guilty, I held my tongue. Exactly as P2 did. I respect them for that.
Willick was and is not P2. There are many others who, day in and out, take their jobs and customers seriously but still maintain a sense of humor when we get out of line!
Once again, I'll stick the "110".

Carolyn wrote: "Why didn’t that company fall apart in 2002 when the girl came forward and he didn’t deny it? He just said she was willing."

I wasn't a P2 member in 2002, and I certainly wasn't in Saskatoon to hear everything that was said. Maybe Canada has the same presumption of innocence until proven guilty that the US does.

And... "He’s already been taking your money for the last 5 years being a known pedophile, you just didn’t get the news or ignored it back when the girl first came forward."

"He" hasn't been taking my money for the past five years. For the past 2+ years, I've been making payments to Point2 Agent, not to Wendell Willick.

And ... "when the only reason he did it was because this girls family will probably come after everything he owns in a future laws suit for the damage he has done."

You are obviously far more in touch with what's been going on in Saskatoon and inside Willick's brain than I am. I don't know all the reasons, or his logic in stepping down. And I certainly don't know the family's plans. I don't see how stepping down reduces his liability, or for that matter, his assets should the victim or her family chose to come after them.

Once again, I feel compelled to ask -- do you disassociate yourself from every company you deal with if there is a known or suspected criminal there? How does that work? Do you presume everyone in the workforce of a company you deal with is innocent, and only when you find out a crime has been committed then you bail out of that association? How do you possibly keep track of every company whose products you buy?? Or do you just disassociate yourself if you happen to hear about a crime being committed -- a crime that has nothing what-so-ever to do with the company?

I am clearly not condoning what Mr. Willick did. It was wrong, grossly wrong. But to blame Point2 Agent for his personal actions that appear to have all taken place well outside the workplace seems ridiculous to me.

I'm in agreement with Jay here. Point2 isn't morally joined to the ex-CEO. It's a website provider, not a pedofile ring.

However, and I am being 100% serious when I say this, I would not leave my child with any religious figure unsupervised. I have no trust in them.

Your mileage may vary.

Like Jay, I had the opportunity to meet Wendell Willick and I find myself feeling very disappointed by what I've learned in recent days.

My wife is a childhood sexual abuse survivor and I am all too familiar with the lasting impact of these types of abuses. For most, it never goes away, and anyone who is connected to a victim on a personal level is familiar with the pain they can carry forever. I'm only thankful that my wife had the courage to bring it out in the open and find the help she needed. I sincerely hope that this young woman can find her way to some kind of healing.

There isn't an acceptable excuse for a mature man to become sexually involved with a 14 year old, regardless of whether or not "she was willing." While the last thing I want to do is come to Willick's defense, I am pleased that he ultimately entered a guilty plea. This is so rare as to be almost unheard of. In most instances abusers continue to deny their wrongdoing, even after they're convicted, which really amounts to an ongoing victimization. We can be thankful that she will not have to live with ongoing denials which often serve as an additional layer of pain for the victim.

I have no idea who knew what at Point2 over the last five years, but I can tell you that I've lived in Saskatoon all of my life and the first I heard of this is what I read in the newspaper the other day. I don't believe this was a widely publicized story until recently.

I have met many of the great people at Point2 and I have to say that I'm not prepared to punish them for Willick's crimes. I trust that they will do the right thing in tidying up whatever business remains to be dealt with.

One person is not the whole company. Thier are alot of other people who work at the company and deserve not to be punsihed for this guys crimes. I personaly think anyone like this should get more time in jail then they do. I respect the company more when they do not try to hide this and act like it never happened.