Sitole maintained his words had been misconstrued, and he had, in fact, said Wesson didn’t need to do any of those things to be part of the group, according to a deposition from one of his supervisors.
Fidelity officials later suggested she would be better off leaving the company, Wesson said.
No Disparaging
In her settlement, the company agreed to give her a positive reference -- including the phrase “I have no reservations recommending Erika for employment” -- and make no disparaging comments about her.
Afterward, employers showed plenty of interest in hiring her because of recommendations such as this one, from a Boston lawyer: “Erika is a strategic thinker, detail oriented, she sees the forest and the trees ... I highly recommend her.”
In 2011, Marc Davidson, a managing director at real estate firm AEW Capital Management, reached out to Wesson’s former boss, Michael Elizondo, after hearing glowing reports about Wesson. Elizondo offered only that Wesson had worked for him, Davidson recalled.
“When you get a response like that, you just stop and don’t ask further questions,” Davidsontestified, according to a court filing. He dropped her as a candidate.
Vanishing Opportunities
In 2012, Bradley Weismiller, an executive at money manager Brookfield Asset Management, described Wesson as “very sharp” in an email after he spoke with her for about an hour, according to one of Wesson’s court filings. One of his colleagues called her background “ideally suited” to their style of investing.
But, later, Wesson testified that Weismiller told her Brookfield had heard from one of her former co-workers that she had “left on very bad terms” and, in the small real-estate industry, her background was no longer considered “pristine.” Weismiller declined to comment.