Sent: Friday, January 5, 2024 9:44 AM
To: Matt Coffey
Subject: Questions about the Recap of 2023 Accomplishments
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Matt,
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I had some questions about the Recap and tried to call Jon Patton who was listed as the Director of Investor Relations and Communication on the bottom of the press release. Multiple calls to Jon's phone got no answer so I decided to just let it ring until I was either cut off or got a message.
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When it finally rang out to a message, the message I got was that Jon's phone could not take the call and to press "0" to get in touch with an operator. Got a message the operator was not available and to hold while I was connected to an alternate operator. Then I got a message the alternate operator was not available.
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After those failures, I had the misfortune of speaking with Tim McCarthy, another one of oncy's investor relations contacts listed at the bottom of Recap. Tim works for LifeSci Advisors.
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I identified myself to McCarthy and said that I had some questions about the 2023 Recap which included why there was no mention about the closure of the San Diego office or the departure of Andrew de Guttadauro, all of which seemed to be relevant information in a recap of 2023.
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Tim confirmed to me that Andrew was indeed gone and then ask where I had heard about the office being closed. I told McCarthy that the OBUS office was listed for rent which seemed to pretty conclusively indicate the office was closed or being relocated.
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I ask McCarthy if there were any plans to replace Andrew or rent a new office and he ask why that was of any interest to me. I replied that as a stockholder it seemed a relevant piece of information that oncy's San Diego office had been closed and that the Head of Global Business Development had departed.
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In response to my questions about the lack of any information, McCarthy said that since Andrew was neither an officer nor director of the company that no press release or SEC filing was necessary.
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I ask McCarthy to call me back with any answers he could provide about the office and remaining employee situation in San Diego and he said he would. I advised McCarthy he would be calling back on my home number and that if nobody answered to leave a message.
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I had to go to town and ask my wife to field a call from McCarthy if he did call back. She is also a shareholder in the company. McCarthy did call back and was quite rude. After confirming to me that Andrew was in fact gone, he then danced around that issue with my wife saying maybe he wasn't "officially gone" to which my wife said he is either gone or he isn't.
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My wife ask about employees in San Diego and McCarthy said there was a CMO and a couple of other employees and that they were relocating but he couldn't/wouldn't say where.
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My wife advised McCarthy that Andrew's LinkedIn page still showed he was president of OBUS in San Diego to which McCarthy said "these things take time". She reminded him that he had told me that Andrew was definitely gone and McCarthy said something to the effect that maybe he hadn't reached his actual departure date as a reason for Andrew not updating his LinkedIn information. She said it takes one day to which McCarthy replied you are asking questions which are irrelevant.
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She said that maybe it needed to taken up with Canada (which is why I am reaching out to you) and he hung up on her.
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If oncy is actually paying for this type of investor relations interface, it would seem to be wasted money.
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At no point did McCarthy say that anything we ask of him was confidential or something which could not be discussed because oncy was in some type of blackout period.
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His only comeback to our questions was something to the effect of why is that of any interest to you or your questions are irrelevant.
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What i would expect for the investor relations contacts who had their numbers listed on the bottom of the press release (presumably so that investors could contact them) would be to say oncy is in a blackout period or that Andrew was released and they have no further comment or there are things which can not be discussed at this time. He said nothing to that effect.
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What I do not expect from any investor relations contact is to ask "why is this of any interest to you" or "your questions are irrelevant" etc.
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McCarthy is obviously either not informed or not up to the job if he does not have reasonable responses to questions of legitimate interest to an investor.
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I have used the "contact us" tab on both the Canadian and U.S. web site and have not received any answers from either one.
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Matt, I am reaching out to you to let you know about the investor relations interactions and to find out if there is anything you can say about the San Diego office situation and the apparent departure of Andrew de Guttadauro.
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Thank you for any information you may be able to provide.
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On Friday, January 5, 2024 at 02:34:38 PM EST, Matt Coffey wrote:
Thank you for your note.
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Concerning Andrew’s employment, the Company decided it wanted a different skill set for this role going forward. We are actively looking to fill this role at this point. As Andrew was not an officer of the Company, there are no requirements to announce his departure, and indeed we don’t announce non-officer departures. This is again due to these roles being non-material to the organization. As a Company policy, we all sign a non-disparaging agreement, so we do not provide any colour around a person’s leaving. If someone were to ask for a reference for any of our ex-employees, we typically only give the period that the organization employed them.
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With respect to his LinkedIn account, the Company cannot compel employees to update their status. Within the industry, it is not uncommon for employees looking for work to not update their profile until they have secured a new role to prevent the appearance of gaps in their resumes.
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Regarding the California office, our lease expired, so we are moving to a new location about two blocks from the current office. Unlike the old office, this one is more work-friendly, bigger from a square footage perspective, and cheaper. Again, as this is a non-material, non-strategic event, we would not plan to announce moving offices within the same neighbourhood.
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I will speak with LSA about Tim’s apparently curt responses.
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I have cc’ed Jon Patton should you wish to discuss any of these issues with him further.
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Regards,
Matt
Matt Coffey, PhD, MBA
President & CEO
Oncolytics Biotech Inc.