Dohring brought two things to the company: expertise in market research and a deep commitment to the principles of Scientology. After college, he spent four years in Toledo working for the church in "counseling and communications." In the writings of Scientology leader L. Ron Hubbard, Dohring discovered a business model that would later become the foundation of the Neopets operation. "He created a management technology that's very powerful," Dohring says. Hubbard's companies follow a system of departmental organization called the Org Board, which he claimed was a refinement of one used by "an old Galactic civilization" that lasted 80 trillion years. Dohring is more concerned with down-to-earth prescriptions, like a corrections division to monitor the performance of other divisions. "It sounds like common sense," he says. "But you'd be surprised. Most companies are missing that."

 - Wired article on Neopets from: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.12/neopets_pr.html

 "NBC Plunders IVillage, Takes Women.com"

"... [S]ome former Kinkade employees, gallery operators and others contend that the Painter of Light has a decidedly dark side.

"This one's for you, Walt," the artist quipped late one night as he urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure, said Terry Sheppard, a former vice president for Kinkade's company, in an interview."

more fun here:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-kinkade5mar05,0,3770067.story?page=1&track=tottext

This one's from a while ago - but it's just as appropriate today . . .

Howdy Pardner . . .