Gregory Reyes Trial | Real Time Court Status

I first met Greg Reyes when I went to visit Brocade Communications in 1998. At the time, he had recently assumed the CEO position there and I worked for an investment banking company, Needham & Company. I no longer work for Needham arid cannot represent them in any capacity at this time.

Brocade had no CFO at the time. I can't remember if the CFO had left just prior to Greg joining or shortly thereafter. I do recall that Brocade was having a difficult time finding a replacement and that the prior CFO had not been suitable to represent the company during an IPO and as a public company. My understanding was that Greg had inherited the CFO problem and was doing his best to find a replacement. Silicon Valley was booming at the time and CFOs were a tough find.

At the initial meeting, in subsequent ones, and at dinners over the next year Greg and I discussed Brocade, their desire to go public, market conditions and the fibre channel industry. Greg also made comments from time to time about his family - all complimentaiy about how wonderful and closely knit they were. He specifically mentioned the sacrifices his wife had made, with small children, to nurture their family. It was very clear that Greg treasured his family and worried about the demands of his current position on his wife and two children.

I believe that two specific encounters are very relevant to Greg's current legal situation. Overall, I am shocked that of the many CEOs I knew during the relevant time period he is the one to be convicted in a criminal trial.

The first situation was when Greg and I initially discussed the possibility of Brocade going public. He said the company had started the process then stopped it after deciding that it wasn't ready. At that time, he made it clear to me that he felt an ethical obligation to stick with the original underwriting team since they had already put in a lot of work and had been loyal to Brocade.

Next, when Brocade did go public, Greg invited our firm to be part of the underwriting syndicate (the underwriters typically consist of three or so investment banks who do most of the work. Greg kept this original team. The syndicate is a much broader group, and only sells stock. In most IPOs this latter list is quite long to ensure wide distribution of shares. We were part of this second group). The lead banker, Morgan Stanley, tried to exclude us from the syndicate at the last minute. I called Greg to discuss this problem. At that time he asked me what his legal and ethical options were. He made it very clear that he would maintain his commitment to us - he felt ethically bound to do so since he had committed to include us - only if doing so was legally correct.

When I recently read in a newspaper that Greg had sent an email in which he said that backdating was illegal I was shocked to read that the email was being interpreted such that he knew illegal things were occurring at Brocade. Based on my experience with Greg 1 read the comment to mean that he was reiterating what was legal to ensure that email recipient complied with the law. As stated above, Greg made it clear to me that both ethical and legal factors were very important to him and must be maintained. He was exceptional as a CEO in his emphasis on the value he placed on legality, ethics and loyalty.

Therefore, based on my experiences with Grog during the period at issue in his trial and sentencing I would respectfully urge the judge to consider leniency. Greg was always gracious, courteous and respectful in every situation in which 1 observed him. Greg worked incredible hours and entered a company with either no CFO or an inappropriate one. One person can only do so much and I would hate to see other executives shy away from companies with similar difficulties due to their own future possible liabilities.



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Gregory Reyes