The Ben Cooley saga rolls on. His new enterprise, with his new wife Asher Cooley (nee Telleen), has launched. Maxwell & Marie are available to help organisations grow. They offer a “leadership diagnosis tool”, a Chief Financial Officer for hire and consultancy in marketing and media, fundraising and income growth, charity programming and leadership development.[1]
The describe themselves as a “team of world class specialists”. We are told, “Maxwell & Marie was created by Ben & Asher Cooley, who have both, individually founded charities & created businesses from the ground up. Over the years they have each been asked multiple times, “How did you do it?”. Maxwell & Marie was created to pass on the tools that can take you to the top.” It is curious that none of their successful charities or businesses are mentioned by name. It is also curious that, while Sole Hope, the charity Asher co-founded seeks to address the “crippling parasite jiggers”,[2] their new website describes Asher as having set up a charity to “tackle a neglected tropical disease called tungiasis”. One might assume that a passion to tackle a tropical disease might include having a shared language for that disease. A cynical person might wonder whether there’s a hope that Google searches for “Asher Cooley” and “tungiasis” won’t lead anyone down a rabbit hole to all the questions about Sole Hope and Asher Cooley’s (nee Telleen’s) leadership of the organisation. What is even more curious is that across the site, I can only find a couple of mentions of “Ben Cooley”. Apart from this, it is always “Ben & Asher Cooley”. That same cynical person may wonder whether the website has been designed to prevent any connection being made in Google search results between Ben Cooley, sacked for gross misconduct from the organisation he co-founded (likely for sexual harassment, funding and power misuse) and this new venture Maxwell & Marie.
Ben Cooley (on his new Maxwell & Marie website) states that he briefed Donald Trump on slavery and human trafficking. It turns out that Ben Cooley (of the newly founded Maxwell & Marie) was not at such a briefing. It was done in his absence by other members of the Hope For Justice team. Well known megachurch pastor, Craig Groeschel provides an endorsement for Maxwell & Marie, “The spark of inspiration you need to pursue your dream and never give up.”[3] Curiously, this quote is actually an endorsement of Ben Cooley’s book Relentless Pursuit.[4] I wonder how comfortable Groeschel would be if he knew that his quote about a book published in 2019, would be now used to endorse the new Maxwell & Marie venture of a man sacked from his organisation for gross misconduct (likely due to sexual harassment and power misuse).
One does wonder what sort of leadership development can be offered by two individuals who are so disconnected from their previous organisations, that they cannot bring themselves to mention them by name on their website. One could also wonder who the other endorsements on the website are actually from, when none of the endorsements include organisational links. One might yet still wonder whether these people who have, presumably, paid for Ben Cooley and Asher Cooley’s (nee Telleen’s) expertise are aware of the hurt each has caused within their previous organisations, or the questions about them that remain.
Needless to say, I don’t think I shall be employing the services of Maxwell & Marie in my work. I think there are probably a lot more well-established organisations working to support organisational development who are not run by men sacked for gross misconduct or women accused of harmful and unethical behaviour.
To read my previous blogs about Ben Cooley and Asher Cooley (nee Telleen) be found by clicking on each blog title:
- Why did Hope For Justice remove Ben Cooley?
- More questions about Ben Cooley
- Guest blog: My Sole Hope story
- Losing Hope For Justice
- 24-7 Prayer, Hillsong and the Ongoing Hope For Justice
[1] https://www.maxwellandmarie.co/services
[3] https://www.maxwellandmarie.co
[4] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Relentless-Pursuit-Passion-Fulfill-Mission/dp/0830778500
God Loves Women 