That disagreement became the central conflict of their relationship.
“You're thirty-five,” Walter told him during a board dinner several months before the Japanese acquisition. “You should be capable of running a division without needing my approval every week.”
Julian stared across the table. “You won't let me make a meaningful decision without calling three people to second-guess it.”
“Because your decisions keep costing money.”
“I've created opportunities.”
“You've created presentations.”
Julian's face hardened. “One day, you're going to have to stop treating me like an employee.”
Walter leaned back. “Then start behaving like an owner.”
The words humiliated Julian because they were spoken in front of executives whose respect he wanted desperately. He smiled through the remainder of dinner, but afterward he went to his office and opened a confidential presentation prepared by an outside financial adviser.
The presentation concerned the Sterling family's governance structure.
It showed several ways voting authority could be reorganized in connection with a major financing transaction, including a potential proxy arrangement supported by pledged interests. Some structures were legitimate in principle, if properly authorized, disclosed, and executed. Others would require consent from trustees, directors, and interested parties, as well as careful examination of legal restrictions.
Julian stared at one diagram.
The trust held approximately fifty-three percent of the voting power in Sterling Dynamics Holdings. His father exercised the principal authority associated with that interest. If a properly authorized arrangement transferred the practical exercise of those votes to another entity for a defined period, that entity could potentially influence board appointments and major governance decisions.
He began imagining what that would mean.
He wouldn't need to convince Walter to step aside. He wouldn't need to win a difficult argument at the family council. He might be able to obtain practical control through a transaction his father already wanted to complete.
That was when Julian contacted Conrad Vale.
Conrad was forty-eight, an aggressive private financier who specialized in complicated corporate situations. He lent money to distressed businesses, acquired minority interests in companies with internal disputes, and made substantial profits from contractual rights that others failed to understand.
He was intelligent, patient, and remarkably comfortable exploiting family conflict.
Julian met him at a private investment event in Manhattan. At first, their conversations concerned ordinary financing opportunities. Then Julian began discussing his father's reluctance to surrender control.
Conrad listened sympathetically.
“Your father built the company,” he said. “Men like that don't usually retire because someone asks politely.”
Julian sighed. “He doesn't understand how much the business needs to change.”
Conrad smiled. “Perhaps he understands the need. Perhaps he simply doesn't trust who's offering to make the changes.”