Top Ten Crazy CEO Moments

Even in a mugshot Bill Gates looks congenial. Picture: mugshots.com

THEY say power corrupts, but it seems it can also drive you stark-raving mad.

Here's our list of the top 10 crazy CEO moments.

No. 10 Randy Michaels

Flags outside the Chicago Tribune building in Chicago, Illinois. Picture: AFP. Source: AFP

The Tribune Company was going bankrupt and CEO Randy Michaels thought this the perfect time to send a sternly-worded missive to WGN-AM 720, one of the radio stations under Tribune Broadcasting's umbrella.

But this was no ordinary missive. Michaels demanded reporters and news anchors stop using words and turns of phrase that he deemed "newsspeak" including things like "auto accident" "we're back" and "behind bars."

He eventually resigned from the job, the company sought bankruptcy protection and they had a major dispute over $725,000 Michaels claimed he was due to be paid.

No. 9 Eddie Lampert

Sears CEO Eddie Lampert masqueraded as Eli Wrexler online. Picture: AFP. Source: AFP

Social media networks inside a company are more common than you think, but when Sears CEO Eddie Lampert corralled his IT department into devising one dubbed "Pebble," his motives were less than noble.

With an eye to seeing what was going on with his fragmented company's employees, he mingled with them on the network under the guise of "Eli Wrexler."

Eli Wrexler was very clearly Eddie Lampert, who would post defensive comments about the company at every opportunity and get into raging arguments with store associates.

No. 8 Bob Parsons

Go Daddy Executive Chairman Bob Parsons attends Muhammad Ali's Celebrity Fight Night in Phoenix in March. Picture: John Sciulli/Getty Images. Source: Getty Images

Parsons is CEO of Go Daddy, the world's biggest internet domain registrar and the company behind the infamous Superbowl ad featuring Israeli model Bar Refaeli making out with a nerd.

He once invited PETA to name him "Scummiest CEO of the Year" after he filmed himself shooting and killing a Zimbabwean elephant. Not surprisingly the video sparked outrage online leading Parsons to tell Mashable his critics were out of touch with life in Zimbabwe as elephants there are considered a pest who trample crops and homes.

No. 7 Sandy Lerner

Sandy Lerner is the Co-founder of Cisco. Pictured in New York. Picture: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images. Source:Getty Images

Sandy Lerner made her name co-founding Cisco Systems, although the mathematician was forced out of the company and moved to the country to become an organic farmer.

She took up residence in a log cabin with nine cats, and began to campaign on behalf of family farmers, also opening her own butcher, grocery store and pub. The huge property allowed her to indulge her love of jousting.

She's also a major fan of Jane Austen who has studied Regency dancing and made period ball gowns. "I can dance in five centuries and two sexes," she once told the New York Times.

No. 6 Andrew Mason

Andrew Mason leaked his resignation letter online after being fired from Groupon. Picture: Noah Berger/Bloomberg Source: Supplied

After founding Groupon, the company that pioneered discount buying, Mason was eventually fired after the stock price plummeted to around one quarter of its initial value.

He penned a glorious memo to staff writing that he was standing in the way of them achieving success and was okay with having failed at this part of the journey.

"If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through," he wrote.

Since he left Groupon the stock price has doubled and he released an album Hardly Workin' which he deems motivational business music. There is also video of him online doing yoga in his underpants in front of a Christmas tree.

No. 5 Mike Jeffries

Shoppers walk past an Abercrombie and Fitch store in New York, 09/12/2009. Source: AP

The Abercrombie & Fitch CEO has a lengthy history of bizarre things: "I think those [Abercrombie G-strings for pre-teens] are cute underwear for little girls!", but particular comments he made seven years ago in an interview with Salon wherein he declared "uncool" kids and "fat women" shouldn't wear A&F recently resurfaced. He has since apologised.

No. 4 Bill Gates

Before he turned world saviour, Bill Gates was a speed demon. Picture: AFP Fabrice Coffrini. Source: News Limited

Sure, NOW he's a mild mannered CEO concerned with saving the world, but back in the day Bill Gates was a bad ass. When Microsoft was based in New Mexico, Gates would race his Porsche 911 in the desert, and had to be bailed out of jail one night after a midnight escapade, according to Time. He has also owned four high performance cars including a $380,000 Porsche that was impounded because it didn't meet emission standards.

According to Time his favourite saying around the office is: "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

No. 3 Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs penned a lengthy open letter to Adobe about why he didn’t support flash on Apple products. Source:AFP

Nothing made Steve Job's blood boil like Adobe. When Apple was just a start-up in a basement trying to catch a break, circa '96, Adobe wouldn't agree to port their movie-editing programs to the Mac, or keep the Mac version of Photoshop as up-to-date as the Windows equivalent.

In 2007, the iPhone launched without Flash capability. In 2010, so did the iPad. Jobs also penned an open letter to Adobe about why Apple would refuse to support them, which Wired compared to an "aggrieved former spouse laying down their side of things in divorce papers."

No. 2 John McAfee

John McAfee’s run from authorities captured world headlines. Source: Supplied

The adventures of John McAfee captured the world's attention when the former anti-virus kingpin went on the run from his Belize home after the death of a neighbour.

McAfee had been raided on suspicion of drug manufacturing and gun possession when he fled for Guatemala. He tried for political asylum and failed, faked two heart attacks and was eventually deported to the US after an interview with Vice magazine that accidentally revealed his location which led to his capture.

He now lives in Portland where he has plans to start his own TV show, according to Reuters reports.

No. 1 Steve Ballmer

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was famed for his ‘animated’ performances on stage. Picture: AFP Kimihiro Hoshino Source: AFP

The high-energy salesman was the driving force in the early days of Microsoft, helping the company grow into a billion dollar behemoth. His 'energetic' on stage performances earned him a huge reputation, but the company slid in recent years with him at the helm, losing market share to Google and Apple.

Las week Ballmer announced he would step down from the company within the next 12 months, which led shares to soar eight per cent. It's safe to say company conferences won't be the same again.

This article originally appeared in Ask Men