If there is anyone, even a single person, concerned about the toll that Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy is having on CEO Ralph de la Torre, worried about how he must be consumed by the plight of the hundreds upon hundreds of his workers who will soon be out of a job, I have some reassuring words for you. He’s handling it all better than anyone might imagine. How much better? Well, when Steward filed court papers in late July to shutter two Massachusetts hospitals, setting off panic and protests in the communities involved, de la Torre wasn’t at his desk in Dallas or visiting his leadership team in Massachusetts.
He was in — I can’t believe I’m about to write this — Versailles. Yes, that Versailles, the one in France, with the palace, the lavish works of art, the Grand Canal, Marie Antoinette, the treaty, all of it. Advertisement It’s important to understand that de la Torre, in addition to being a yachtsman, has become something of a horseman as well, because of course he has, with a ranch outside of Dallas and a wife who is deep in the equestrian world, according to those who know him.
And Versailles is currently playing host to the Olympic equestrian events, providing what the official website for the games describes as a “truly exceptional and historic setting,” in the heart of Versailles’ stunning gardens. The promotional videos, with muscular horses gamboling across bridges and along grassy fields as the palace windows glint in the sun, say it all..