Updated: April 19, 2024
Our Investigations
Based on information and documents compiled during a series of interviews with TPG/Exactech employees and gathered from other sources, we believe there is sufficient information that various TPG/Exactech executives and managers may have discriminated against certain employees based on race, sex and sexual orientation and have possibly committed various civil violations. We wish to learn more about the incidences that we are already aware of and to broaden our investigation to include other possible incidences. The purpose of this webpage is to solicit the assistance of TPG/Exactech employees and others that may have information about discriminatory or illegal activities by company management.
Below, we have generally described a subset of the incidents. We seek to gather evidence that
justifies a federal regulatory complaint and individual civil action against TPG/Exactech and
individual members of its management.
We are asking for the assistance of TPG/Exactech employees and others to further our evidence
gathering of documents and witness accounts regarding the events listed below. (Currently, the
names of individuals have been withheld until the news journal has been published.) It is not
necessary that you were present when the incidents occurred. As other employees have done, we
simply want to know what you know about these and other occurrences that may fit a pattern of
discrimination. Please tell us what you know about these and other incidences.
- Upon its acquisition of Exactech, TPG terminated all Black and female board members and replaced them with White men.
- Around the same time, TPG/Exactech employed just two Black personnel managers out of nearly 1,000 employees. One of those managers was hired, in part, to design a Compliance information system to meet the requirements of a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ and a corporate integrity agreement with the OIG. Once completed, the system drew acclaim from both federal agency monitors, law firms and consultants specializing in that space, as well as the company’s senior management and board of directors. For the most part, he was the only Black employee in the department throughout his employment. He was also the senior operations employee within the department for the first several years until he was later assigned a White direct senior manager (SM). SM immediately began hiring managers above him, parallel to him and below him. Then, despite the glowing success of the system designed and designed by the Black manager and his other accomplishments, SM began assigning various projects related to the system to a new White manager that was hired below the Black manager, though the White manager admitted having no experience in system design and development or an understanding of how to draft system plans. The Black manager was assigned to review her work before it was implemented and discovered numerous fatal errors in several projects. Despite that, SM eventually inexplicably assigned full responsibility of the system design and management to the White manager. The White manager was later promoted above the Black manager.
- SM purportedly also began to target the Black manager by making negative comments about him to his coworkers in his absence including stereotypical references that implied he was violent. SM warned the White coworkers they should be wary of him and on guard that he might attack. He was also cast negatively as inarticulate and SM repeatedly claimed she could not understand him. She also suggested he was slow to understand others. We believe the Black manager was harassed by SM when SM often found fault with him in the smallest things; verbally attacked him and dressed him down in meetings that included large groups of cross-functional staff and high-ranking company officials. She purportedly worked with HR to post a new position internally and draft the qualifications so he would not qualify for the position. In furtherance, SM encouraged employees within the department to complain to HR about him. SM repeatedly communicated to the Black manager’s coworkers that he was not welcome in the department and eventually suggested he be placed on a performance improvement plan in part for the direct supervisor’s angry response to actions carried out at the request of the SM, demote him from a personnel manager to a process manager, and in a move that appeared to be for the sole purpose of embarrassing and humiliating him, replaced his managerial duties with duties normally assigned to administrative assistants.
- Apart from his award-winning performance within his assigned duties, on his own initiative and separate from his assigned duties, the Black manager formed a partnership between TPG/Exactech and the UF Athletic Department. That partnership led to career-oriented formal presentations by top TPG/Exactech executives to UF scholarship athletes; sponsorship of UF’s newly-renovated Exactech Arena; a summer internship program for UF athletes; and a mentorship program for former UF athletes playing in the NFL and NBA to assist them in business skills development for a career after professional sports. At the suggestion of senior management, as a part of the NFL/NBA mentorship program, a Black former UF star athlete and NFL player was escorted by the Black manager to a TPG/Exactech medical education event to observe business activities. Days later, the company’s Legal & Compliance departments informed the Black manager the company opened an investigation to determine whether the NFL player’s attendance was illegal. They later claimed the NFL player’s attendance violated the federal Anti-Kickback statute, fired the Black manager, and discontinued the NFL/NBA mentorship program. Though senior management was purportedly notified that Legal & Compliance had not actually conducted an investigation before reaching the false conclusion that the NFL athlete had violated federal law, the SM and the Black manager’s direct supervisor were retained and then promoted. It is suspicious that the Black manager was the only Black employee in the department, the only employee in the department honored by the board of directors and repeatedly honored by senior management for his performance, the only employee within the department with more than a year of service that was never promoted, the only employee within the department that was demoted, and the only employee within the department that had two employees hired in subordinate positions that were promoted above him.
- The company’s second Black personnel manager at the time was also later terminated for reasons unrelated to the events discussed in the previous paragraphs. The termination of all Black board members and personnel managers needs to be investigated to determine whether TPG/Exactech has targeted its highest ranking Blacks.
- Purportedly, a high-ranking male executive who was married at the time, engaged in an affair with at least two female employees. At least one on the female employees was married. It appears at least one of the female employees later abruptly left the company. Even though the executive affairs were purportedly known to TPG/Exactech, the male executive remains associated with TPG/Exactech at a high level.
- We believe a male executive sexually preying on substantially less powerful female staff members in a corporate environment is reprehensible. Following the publication of the impending news journal, we will update this website to identity the executive in the hopes it will encourage other female victims, if any, to come forward and tell their stories. Should anyone have additional information about this, or perhaps, other similar occurrences, please contact us.
- A TPG/Exactech officer and a manager purportedly approached a longtime employee they suspected was homosexual and asked him if he was gay. He denied he was gay. They told him they did not believe him and continued to laugh at him while teasing him and insisting he was gay. In the following weeks, the employee became frequently absent from work and then committed suicide. Despite that the officer and manager were attempting to out him as gay leading up to his suicide, they remained employed with the company for years following the employee’s death and it appears the TPG/Exactech officer was later promoted.
We believe we have good witness accounts related to these events but we are looking to improve them. Potential witnesses will likely be assisted in recalling details once the managers involved in this incident are identified in the impending, news journal, but we are seeking additional witness accounts from employees and others in the interim. We believe it was wrong for TPG/Exactech managers to purportedly confront the suicide victim about his sexual orientation and to continually tease him. We believe his family deserves to know what happened to their loved one and to learn which TPG/Exactech managers played an active, or perhaps even, a passive role in his outing. We are also interested in hearing of other potential outing incidences, if any. You can remain anonymous. - A White manager purportedly approached a White employee under his management who was watching a motion picture on his phone as he worked. The manager commented to the employee that he was acting like the [N-words] because they are known to watch motion pictures while working. After the incident was reported to senior management, HR orchestrated an opportunity for the manager to apologize to his staff but he was purportedly not immediately suspended from work or administered any punishment visible to his staff and was permitted to return to his duties to manage the same Black employees he had just used racist language to describe. After continued complaints from employees, the manager was eventually separated from the company. It is not clear whether he resigned or was terminated. Given that he continued his employment after using such racially offensive language was remarkable when compared to the manner in which some Black employees were terminated from the company. Also, if he was permitted to resign and wasn’t terminated, it seems this is clear disparate treatment by TPG/Exactech compared to how at least some Black employees are treated.
We’ve heard of other stories and we’d like to verify whether they are true or not. If you are aware of any of the details related to this incident or are aware of employee’s using racist, sexist or stereotypical language during work hours, please let us know.
We want to emphasize that the list above is a subset of the serious incidences we’ve compiled.
Talk with your coworkers and friends about these and any other events and encourage them to do
the same. In order to assist employees in their recollection of events, we intend to supplement the
incidences listed here and provide additional details, including the names of the purported
perpetrators, once the news journal has been published.
Current and former TPG/Exactech employees have been a tremendous source of
potential evidence of racial and/or sexual discrimination. This information is a
tremendous help as we move forward with the gathering of potential evidence to
support our anticipated lawsuit against TPG and Exactech. Though we have heard
allegations of management using the N-word to make reference to Black
employees, outing an employee as being gay, etc., acts that are much more subtle
may be useful in a discrimination complaint.
Therefore, we encourage employees to report even the most subtle and seemingly
insignificant act using the form below, even it he/she did not witness it direct.
You can do so anonymously.
Thank you.
Note: We have received numerous requests for an advanced copy of the Letter to TPG/Exactech
President underlying documents discussed above. We are reserving first review and publication
of the documents to a major international news organization as a part of an investigative journal.
Once we have provided the documents to them and upon publication of their initial article, we
will publish that and other documents here.
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For media members who would like to register for our distribution list to receive future press releases and materials regarding updates and planned activities (e.g., protests, boycotts, unionization, etc.), please complete the contact form and identify yourself as media. All others may register to receive our newsletter using the same form.
Former, Compliance Director, Americas Exactech, Inc.
⸟⸞
Manager
Life Sciences Compliance & Risk Management
Deloitte