Voting Station

Jim Crane

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Entrepreneur

The Resume

    (January 17, 1954- )
    Born in Dellwood, Missouri
    Chair and CEO of Crane Capital Group
    Purchased the Houston Astros (2011)

Why he might be annoying:

    An investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) of one of the companies he owned, Eagle Global Logistics, concluded that the company consistently paid minority and female employees less than white males performing comparable jobs, failed to investigate employee complaints of sexual harassment, and destroyed documents they had been ordered to retain during the investigation.
    He reportedly told subordinates not to hire black people because ‘once you hire blacks, you can never fire them,’ and to not hire women for managerial positions because male managers would not work with women.
    Eagle and the EEOC eventually reached a $9 million settlement, with $8.5 million going to back pay and damages for female and minority employees (2000).
    Eagle Global Logistics was sued four times by the Justice Department for war profiteering on shipping military equipment to the Middle East, and paid over $9 million to settle the cases (2006-09).
    His apology for the Astros' sign-stealing scandal was half-hearted, at best.
    He declared, ‘Our opinion is, this didn’t impact the game,’ followed minutes later by, ‘I didn’t say it didn’t impact the game.’

Why he might not be annoying:

    As a pitcher for Central Missouri University, he set a school record for most strikeouts in a game (18).
    After he graduated college, his mother presented him with a congratulatory card and an invoice for the repayment of $220.85 she had given him while he was a student – at four percent interest.
    He was runner-up for the national Entrepreneur of the Year award (1996).
    He paid to renovate 23 city parks in Houston.
    Golf Digest ranked him as the best golfer among American CEOs (2006).
    He fired Astros manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow over their roles in the sign-stealing scandal.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 11 Votes: 90.91% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 63 Votes: 52.38% Annoying