The Trial Balance is CFO.com’s weekly preview of stories, stats and events to help you prepare.
Part 1 — Former CFO’s discrimination case is settled with The Real Brokerage
Miami-based real estate firm The Real Brokerage has reached a settlement with a former CFO who sued the company over claims of discrimination and wrongful termination.
Real on Saturday announced it reached a “settlement in principle” with former CFO Michelle Ressler, who earlier this year filed a lawsuit alleging the company discriminated against her when it fired her shortly after she returned from maternity leave.
Ressler’s suit, first filed in April in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, sought “back pay and front pay for past and future lost wages and benefits,” as well as other “compensatory damages” for reputation harm and emotional distress. However, under terms of the settlement announced over the weekend, “Real will make no payment to Ms. Ressler,” the company said in a news release on Saturday.
“In addition, pursuant to the settlement in principle, Ms. Ressler will reimburse Real for personal charges made on the Company’s corporate credit card,” the company said.
Ressler and Real are still finalizing terms of a written agreement, according to the company.
Allison L. Van Kampen, an attorney with Outten & Golden representing Ressler, sent a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres on Thursday acknowledging that the parties had reached a settlement in principle following a mediation on Oct. 30. Torres last month had granted a request that paved the way for the parties to enter mediation.
Van Kampen wrote that the parties are asking the court to extend all deadlines to Dec. 17 while they finalize the written settlement.
Van Kampen’s office didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on the settlement on Monday morning.
In Ressler’s complaint, she alleged Real had fired her “just three months after she returned from maternity leave, giving her CFO role to her less qualified male subordinate, and issuing a defamatory press release about it.” Real had issued a press release in late April stating that Ressler was terminated “based on the company’s opinion that she engaged in actions that violated company policies.”
Part 2 — This week
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead. Note: Economic reports may be delayed due to the government shutdown.
Monday, Nov. 10, none scheduled
Tuesday, Nov. 11
- Veterans Day holiday: stock market open, bond market closed
- NFIB optimism index, Oct.
Wednesday, Nov. 12
- Multiple Fed presidents speak
Thursday, Nov. 13
- Initial jobless claims, Nov. 8
- Consumer price index, Oct.
- CPI year over year, Oct.
- Core CPI, Oct.
- Core CPI year over year
Friday, Nov. 14
- U.S. retail sales
- Retail sales minus autos
- Producer price index
- Core PPI
- PPI year over year
- Core PPI year over year
- Business inventories
Part 3 — Weekly listen: Chemours CFO Shane Hostetter
Shane Hostetter, CFO of Delaware-based chemical maker Chemours, on Nov. 3 sat for an interview on the “Inside the ICE House” podcast in the New York Stock Exchange Building to talk through his approach to financial leadership. The podcast, hosted by financial services firm Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE, included queries on Chemours’ recently announced plans to develop “liquid cooling” for data centers in partnership with Riyadh-based data center operator DataVolt.
Hostetter noted that such efforts are “really near and dear to the company’s heart.”
“My job is to make sure that those innovative ideas are actually then associated with financial returns,” he told podcast host Lance Glinn.
Hostetter also talked through how he aims to encourage creativity and innovation on his team.
“I just had a townhall, and the beat of that drum was, ‘Challenge the status quo,’” Hostetter said. “I’ve been in the chemical industry for 15 years. I’m no stranger to understanding how you get into processes and you just do them over and over and over again. And so the question then is, how do you challenge yourself to be a change agent to really improve?”
