"To say it bluntly, she was fired," former Trek president and COO Tom Albers told WISN.
His comments come on the heels of a report that detailed several former Trek employees' claims that the current Democratic candidate for Wisconsin governor, Mary Burke, was fired by her own family after a catastrophic stint overseeing European operations.
"Her performance in Europe was not good," Albers, who was vice president of the company at the time, told WISN. "We were losing a lot of money for us at the time. I don’t remember the amount, but it was considered significant based on where we were [as a company] at that particular point in time."
"And also, we were encountering personnel/people problems over there. The people were threatening to leave the company. Many of them were."
Albers said that Mary's brother John was the first to raise the alarm over his sister's poor performance. He said he was then sent to review Burke's work and concluded her job was beyond saving.
"I pretty much came back with the same conclusions that John Burke had made; and that was that we had major people problems over there and were in a situation where we could lose a lot of people," he told WISN. "We were losing a lot of money and I couldn't see where Mary Burke was going to turn this thing around."
Albers said there was some truth is Mary Burke's claim that she was "burned out" by the job and that's why her time there ended. However, he said that wasn't the only issue.
"I think she probably did suffer burnout," he said. "But at the same time she was underwater, too, and she couldn't handle the position."
When asked who made the final decision to fire Mary Burke, Albers was unequivocal.
"Ultimately, it was Dick Burke’s decision," the former Trek president said. "He would have been the one who made the final decision."