Colleen Sterner

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Unprofessional? Hardly

July 3, 2024 by

I wrote back in March about the promotion that Colleen Sterner received in the NRA’s Office of Advancement. As a refresher, she is the niece of disgraced former NRA CEO and EVP Wayne LaPierre who mere days after he retired was appointed to Director of Events for Advancement with a six-figure salary. That post stirred some angst within the NRA’s PR department.

There have been a number of filings in recent days in the bench phase of the New York Attorney General’s suit against the NRA. These filings include both witness lists and exhibits that the parties want to bring to the attention of Judge Joel Cohen. One that caught my eye was by Noah Peters of Brewer, Attorneys and Counselors, on behalf of the NRA. Exhibit 38 was a string of emails involving Sterner, NRA CFO Sonya Rowling, and Bob Mensinger who at the time had not yet been named the NRA’s Chief Compliance Officer.

NRA Exhibit 38 by jpr9954 on Scribd

If you read through the string of emails starting on the last page and going to the top, you see it involves a review of a contract for an event to be held at the 2024 NRA Annual Meeting. Sterner was pushing to get a contract approved quickly by Sonya Rowling. Unfortunately for her, it appears Sterner did an incomplete job that was not in compliance with the NRA’s Procurement Policy for which Rowling called her out.

Like a spoiled child who finally gets disciplined, Sterner threw a fit and complained about the response to both then Interim EVP Andrew Arulanandam and Mensinger as head of compliance.

Andrew and Bob,
See Sonya Rowling’s unprofessional email below. I can’t believe I am being viciously retaliated against based on who my uncle is and Sonya’s disdain for him. Financial Services Division, under the leadership of Rowling, has constantly moved the goal post for NRA’s contract processes.
Colleen Sterner

I would hardly call Rowling’s email “unprofessional”. I see it as the response of someone who knows the loose ways of the past are over and is perhaps a little frustrated over having to continuously correct the errors of those who have not realized this yet. I will say that Mensinger’s response was quite diplomatic as he politely says in so many words “not my problem”.

Of course, Sterner is not satisfied with that. It ends with a huffy statement about how she is working on “12 events”, the contract review is “old and entirely vague”, and they are moving the goal posts on her.

I would say that this is a prime example of the Peter Principle in action except that Sterner’s promotion to Director of Events for Advancement happened long after she had reached her level of incompetence. That may sound harsh but members of the NRA have a right to expect that people are hired and promoted based upon their competency and not their family ties.

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The NRA Responds

March 10, 2024 by 5 Comments

It appears that my post on the promotion of Wayne LaPierre’s niece, Colleen Sterner, has hit a nerve at the NRA. I received a direct message on Twitter/X from Billy McLaughlin who is the NRA’s spokesperson. It was sent yesterday afternoon.

Here is the message in its entirety:

John: This is Billy McLaughlin, NRA’s spokesman. Although the NRA does not typically respond to the false reports such as yours- we do so here given the that motivation seems to be reporting falsely the circumstances of our employees. Therefore, we confirm that your report is 100 percent false. In fact, the only information in your report which is accurate is that the employee in question is held in high regard by her supervisor. Please check your sources and “facts” – it is amazing what qualifies as “reporting” about the NRA these days.

First and foremost, I stand by my sources and the veracity of the information that they shared with me. I would not have written the post nor would I have posted it if I did not trust my sources to give me honest and accurate information.

Second, this response is very reminiscent of the NRA’s response to the Mike Spies article in The New Yorker. In that article, Tyler Schropp is quoted as saying, “Sterner is an ‘extraordinary and valuable employee’ who manages ‘national events that make a positive impact on the N.R.A., its members, and its mission.'” Likewise, McLaughlin’s predecessor as spokesperson and now his boss Andrew Arulanadam said, “Sterner “played a leading role in producing’ the affair.” This was in reference to a 2015 Women’s Leadership Forum summit where internal NRA documents showed her responsibilities were basic and rather menial.

Third, as an Endowment Life Member of the NRA my “motivation” is not as McLaughlin states “to be reporting falsely the circumstances of our employees” but to ask why a relative directly linked to what the jury in New York considered a dereliction of LaPierre’s fiduciary duties was promoted. That Tyler Schropp holds her “in high regard” is irrelevant. While it might not seem fair that she is tainted by association with her uncle’s misdeeds, it is what it is.

Finally, given McLaughlin asserts that the “report is 100 percent false”, I would say as my old high school chemistry and physics teacher would say, show me. Is Mrs. Sterner not Wayne and Susan LaPierre’s niece? No, we know that she is. Did she not get promoted to be Director of Events for Advancement? No, we have Tyler Schropp’s email announcing her promotion. Did not Wayne LaPierre divert flights to Nebraska to pick up Mrs. Sterner? No, we have the documentation provided in court that proves it. A blanket assertion that a story or report is false is the oldest tool in the PR flack’s toolbox. It is the PR equivalent of yelling, “squirrel!!!!!”

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Nepotism Lives On At The NRA

March 9, 2024 by 9 Comments

One might be under the impression that the NRA has cleaned up its act, put new procedures in place, is respectful of the member’s money, and that the misdeeds of the LaPierre era are never to be repeated. Indeed, that is the premise of the NRA attorney’s arguments as they head into the next phase of the New York trial. Attorney Sarah Rogers of Brewer, Attorneys and Counselors, wrote in a letter to Judge Cohen, “The remainder of the trial should focus on the sole remaining triable issue of fact: whether any of the statutory violations established in the jury phase are continuing or are imminently likely to reoccur.”

Unfortunately, as I found out yesterday from multiple sources, regardless of the new procedures, nepotism and the disrespect for the members’ money lives on at the NRA. That is because a mere 21 days after Wayne LaPierre’s resignation from the NRA became effective, his niece Colleen Sterner was promoted to be Director of Events for Advancement. She will continue to live and work from her home in Nebraska. According to my sources, insiders are saying her salary is estimated to be in the $300,000 range.

Making the promotion was Tyler Schropp, the Executive Director of the NRA Office of Advancement, and the second highest compensated employee at the NRA according to the NRA’s 2022 Form 990. His total compensation was reported to be $854,219. As exhibits in the New York trial make clear, Schropp went by the “Wayne said/Wayne OK’ed it” modus operandi and actual procedures and documentation be damned.

The NRA Employee Handbook, Sec. C1.12, states that relatives of current employees including nieces and nephews can be hired if qualified. Sterner was first hired by the NRA in 2015 to work for the Women’s Leadership Forum which was led by her Aunt Susan (LaPierre) on a volunteer basis. Sterner supposedly helped organize “national events” but, as an article in The New Yorker points out, her assignments tended to be basic tasks such as helping out with registration.

According to Andrew Arulanandam, an N.R.A. spokesperson, Sterner “played a leading role in producing” the affair. Yet one of the summit’s organizers told me, “I’d never met Colleen before the event started, but Susan had mentioned she’d be part of the staff. She didn’t work at headquarters, and she wasn’t on the regular planning calls or meetings that we had. Her status was never clear to me.”

Internal N.R.A. records show that Sterner was assigned a half dozen basic responsibilities, such as providing “registration support as needed” and serving as a point of contact for a trap and skeet shooting activity. Multiple people who worked the summit said that it was often difficult to locate Sterner.

The article in The New Yorker by Mike Spies which includes many interviews with NRA employees casts serious doubts on her actual work for the NRA. This correlates with what my own sources have told me about Sterner. I would say read the entire article and make up your own mind about whether Sterner is now qualified for a $300,000 director level position. While Spies does write for The Trace and I would disagree with much of his conclusions, the guy gets his facts correct.

The private jet and helicopter flights that the jury in the New York trial found Wayne LaPierre liable for repaying include those that diverted to Nebraska to pick up Sterner as well as a helicopter flight to a NASCAR race in which her husband Terry was a passenger. It is also why Wayne was found to have breached his fiduciary duty under the Non-Profit Corporation Law.

The NRA is currently recruiting for a Meetings Manager. This would be at least one level below a director. Requirements include a college degree, 5+ years of experience, and preferably hold the Certified Meeting Professional designation. Part of the job requirements including contract review and negotiations. Unless I am grossly mistaken, I just don’t see Sterner holding the requisite qualifications other than, perhaps, a college degree.

One has to wonder if the promotion of Sterner to be Director of Events for Advancement was not a quid pro quo negotiated by LaPierre with Schropp in his final days at the NRA. It would not surprise me in the least if it were. Given that Judge Cohen was reportedly leaning away from appointing a monitor to oversee the NRA, this could and should give pause to that. It is more evidence that new leadership is needed, that the house (including upper level NRA managers) must be cleansed, and that the Old Guard and their supporters cast out if the NRA is to be saved as an effective Second Amendment organization. Members, current, former, and future, are not going to donate unless this happens.

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Just Slipped Wayne’s Mind

December 23, 2021 by 3 Comments

Mike Spies of The Trace is no friend of the NRA. He also does damn good research and always has his facts correct. He pretty much has to or else he’d be sued by the NRA for libel.

He came out with a new report yesterday in The Trace regarding Wayne LaPierre’s yacht trips in the Bahamas and the role played by Colleen Sterner, Wayne’s niece, in the NRA. The yacht trips in the Bahamas were on a yacht owned by David McKenzie whose company is a contractor for the NRA. Sterner was hired to work with the NRA’s Womens Leadership Forum and is still employed by the NRA. Her hiring came at the behest of Susan LaPierre.

Wayne has testified that the yacht trips were for security reasons. This was especially true of the 2013 trip as it happened just a few months after the Newtown school murders. What Wayne failed to mention in his sworn testimony is that this trip just happened to coincide with his niece’s wedding in the Bahamas and that both couples then cruised around the Bahamas afterwards.

From the article:

Under questioning about the yacht trip, LaPierre did not disclose the wedding. Instead, he testified under oath that he used the boat that summer because his life was in imminent danger. He said that trip — the first of six annual summer voyages on the yacht in the Bahamas, from 2013 to 2018 — was a “security retreat” and the only way he could be safe after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. LaPierre explained that he was under “Presidential threat without Presidential security” and that the boat “was offered” as a refuge. When he finally got to the yacht, he recalled thinking, “Thank God I’m safe, nobody can get me here.”

Internal NRA documents, other records, and interviews with former staffers suggest that LaPierre repeatedly made misleading and possibly false statements under oath about the yacht and his niece. LaPierre testified that Sterner, whom he hired at the NRA, was an integral employee in the organization, but former colleagues, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, say she did little work. 

The NRA’s outside counsel Bill Brewer contends that these trips were disclosed and they were for security reasons. Note that supposedly Brewer represents the NRA and not Wayne LaPierre. Right.

As to Mrs. Sterner, numerous staffers involved with the WLF say she really did very little work for the Forum. The work she did do such as ordering flowers was rather menial. No one has mentioned nepotism but it is what it is. One of the events she was supposed to be involved with was a 2017 event held by the WFL in conjunction with the Safari Club International Convention.

From the article:

The former staffers expressed astonishment to me at LaPierre’s claims under oath. “Colleen was not involved in the planning of, or participation in, any event or donor visits,” one said. “If she and her husband were there, neither of them had a hand in helping coordinate donor activities, events, or soliciting items for the annual auction.” The person added: “There were corporate relations individuals who needed to be at events during show season and had children at home. They were never offered any enhanced accommodation, let alone traveling by private jet with their spouse and child.” A second person said that “there was absolutely no indication” Sterner worked at the Las Vegas gathering. She could not be found on the convention floor or at parties, dinners, receptions, or strategy breakfasts hosted by Susan. At one point, the WLF sponsored a private luncheon for about a dozen wealthy female hunters who, based on their accomplishments, were called the Dianas, after the Roman goddess of hunting. The event, in the penthouse of the Four Seasons, was hosted by Susan. Sterner was not there, either, people with knowledge of the gathering told me. 

I’m getting the feeling with Susan out as co-chair of the Women’s Leadership Forum that staffers are feeling less constrained about venting their frustration over her treatment of them over the years.

I do disagree with Spies NYU Law School Professor Stephen Gillers that this will be ammunition that will help James dissolve the NRA. What it will help do is remove Wayne and the existing leadership of the NRA. I believe the judge in the case is less inclined to actually dissolve the organization but probably has no hesitation cleaning house.