by Craig Spray, CFO and Treasurer of the National Rifle Association, has resigned. I found out the news on late Friday afternoon. Spray had been CFO since 2018 when Wilson “Woody” Phillips retired. He had previously been the CFO of furniture maker Knoll, Inc.
I have not seen any official announcement of it but I have gotten it from multiple sources including from a Director.
The official story as far as I can tell is that Spray resigned for health reasons. He had a heart attack sometime in the past. If you remember, back in 2018 Spray had to step aside for a few weeks due to health issues and the infamous Josh Powell was named acting CFO.
Rumor also has it that Spray learned of the NRA’s bankruptcy filing in the Texas at the same time as the Board of Directors were notified. That is, after the fact. Chief financial officers are usually the key individuals involved when an organization declares Chapter 11 bankruptcy. If that is indeed the case, it is enough to cause one to ask WTF?
Rats deserting the sinking ship?
As a former CFO, I would certainly consider a late notification as an insult and resign, especially if I were also having health problem. Taking, for now, the statement that the NRA is financially OK as the truth, would suggest that the process is lawyer driven rather than finance driven, the process would have been started by counsel rather than by the CFO. This kind of dovetails with your previous analysis about how the NRA is being run these days. I don’t doubt that the NRA is having financial problems on both the expenditure and revenue fronts but there is no indication that they are having difficulties paying the mortgage or meeting payroll.
Not that escaping New York is a bad idea. Should have been done decades ago. If I were the king of the NRA, I would have done it right after they passed the Sullivan Act.