Restraining orders, breach of contract lawsuits, and huge judgments have all been leveled against Mr. Darren M. Meade, interim CEO of Progenex. But until now, much of that has been hidden from the light of public scrutiny, as Mr. Meade has done his best to cast blame on everyone but himself, and portray himself online as a champion bodybuilder and the archetype of a savvy businessman.
But what about Darren Meade, who lists on his resume' that he was not only a champion bodybuiler, but also a partner in Met-Rx and the architect of the entire Met-Rx brand? If you read Phillips' magazine in the '90s, you may remember Meade...not because he was an author or an expert, but because they sometimes made fun of him (for being insecure):
Being a partner in a supplement distribution company is a far cry from than being the "architect" and "co-founder" of the best selling meal replacement in sports nutrition history.
It's interesting to note that when Meade attempted to hire a (legitimate) former Met-Rx employee to work for him at Progenex, he is quite clear that he worked for Met-Rx Marketplace, and not Met-Rx. (His offer of employment was quickly declined when the email's recipient realized who he was).
Met-Rx Marketplace was ultimately extinguished by the parent company when it was discovered that Meade was offering the product to retailers (mostly gyms) at a price below the company mandated wholesale price.
In other words, he had been selling MetRx below the wholesale price, and therefore cannabalizing the profit and sales of the parent brand for his own benefit.
When this distribution entity was terminated, Meade hired a contingency lawyer and sued Met-Rx, for the remainder of his profit sharing clause. Standard fees for this type of lawyer is 1/3rd of the eventual settlement (remember that number, because it's important). The CEO of Met-Rx (not Dr. Scott Connelly, the owner) quickly made a decision to resolve the issue, and stay out of court.
Meade received an arbitrated settlement of $1.5m. The company was sold for $108m - whatthis means, if my math is correct, is that the so-called architect of the brand was actually determined by an independent third party arbitrator to have been worth less than 1.5% of the company's sale-value.
Information on his arbitrated settlement can be found everywhere online, from articles, to Wikipedia, press releases from Progenex, to his Facebook Fan page. But remember, Darren is a former bodybuilder, and bodybuilding isn't about having the best body on stage, it's about creating the illusion of the best body; you don't need the smallest waist if you have the broadest shoulders, and a 20" arm can get there with 19" of biceps and 1" of triceps. It's all about illusion and that's what Darren Meade's success and expertise in the sports nutrition field is - an illusion.
(Click Photo to Enlarge):
Remember the contingency lawyer that Darren used to get his $1.5m settlement against MetRx? Well, when we subtract a standard 1/3rd fee from that case, Meade was probably left with about a million bucks. Since he lost this lawsuit (using the same lawyer, ironically), for over a million dollars. Meade actually walked away with negative $106,000 dollars from his blockbuster career in the nutritional industry. Although we see a lot of online talk about the money Darren won, we rarely hear about the fact that he lost it almost immediately.
Still, that's not so bad when you consider what happened with one of Meade's other lawyers:
On 06/14/2005 Meade hired an attorney (Vernon C. Jolley), and by 07/18/2006, just over a year later, Jolley sued Meade (06CC08186) and was awarded a judgment on 10/23/2007. You know it's bad when the lawyer you hire ends up suing you himself!
So, although we might see Darren badmouthing his former girlfriend during interviews, we never hear about the restraining order she took out on him. In fact, we hear about his legal victories and lawsuits where he is the plaintiff all over the 'net, but we never hear about his established pattern of being sued for failure to pay his debts (collections) or the suits filed against him for breach of contract:
In the end, what we find when we look at Darren Meade, is a guy who has made an entire career on distorting the facts surrounding his involvement in numerous successful ventures. That time is over, and these are the real facts and the real truth surrounding this man.
Here's the real story of Darren Meade:
When MetRx was sold in 1999 for a staggering $108 million dollars, Dr. Scott Connelly walked away as a very rich(and famous) man. In fact, several noteworthy players in the sports nutrition field walked away with a ton of money; Bill Phillips, Jeff Everson, and Lee Labrada can be counted among the men who MetRx helped make extremely wealthy. Of course, we all know what happened to Phillips (who owned Muscle Media 2000, went on to own nutritional giant EAS and later to write Body For Life), Labrada (who now owns Labrada Nutrition), and Everson (who now publishes Planet Muscle magazine).But what about Darren Meade, who lists on his resume' that he was not only a champion bodybuiler, but also a partner in Met-Rx and the architect of the entire Met-Rx brand? If you read Phillips' magazine in the '90s, you may remember Meade...not because he was an author or an expert, but because they sometimes made fun of him (for being insecure):
Meade didn't even work for Met-Rx...
The truth is that Meade was never a partner in Met-Rx. And, technically, Meade didn't even work for MetRx per se, he drew his paychecks from a company called MetRx Marketplace a distribution entity in which he was a partner. There is a huge difference between working for a company versus its distributor, and when we talk about Meade's involvement with the company, it isn't "Met-Rx" we're talking about, but rather, a distribution company that sold the Met-Rx product line.Being a partner in a supplement distribution company is a far cry from than being the "architect" and "co-founder" of the best selling meal replacement in sports nutrition history.
It's interesting to note that when Meade attempted to hire a (legitimate) former Met-Rx employee to work for him at Progenex, he is quite clear that he worked for Met-Rx Marketplace, and not Met-Rx. (His offer of employment was quickly declined when the email's recipient realized who he was).
Met-Rx Marketplace was ultimately extinguished by the parent company when it was discovered that Meade was offering the product to retailers (mostly gyms) at a price below the company mandated wholesale price.
In other words, he had been selling MetRx below the wholesale price, and therefore cannabalizing the profit and sales of the parent brand for his own benefit.
When this distribution entity was terminated, Meade hired a contingency lawyer and sued Met-Rx, for the remainder of his profit sharing clause. Standard fees for this type of lawyer is 1/3rd of the eventual settlement (remember that number, because it's important). The CEO of Met-Rx (not Dr. Scott Connelly, the owner) quickly made a decision to resolve the issue, and stay out of court.
Meade received an arbitrated settlement of $1.5m. The company was sold for $108m - whatthis means, if my math is correct, is that the so-called architect of the brand was actually determined by an independent third party arbitrator to have been worth less than 1.5% of the company's sale-value.
Information on his arbitrated settlement can be found everywhere online, from articles, to Wikipedia, press releases from Progenex, to his Facebook Fan page. But remember, Darren is a former bodybuilder, and bodybuilding isn't about having the best body on stage, it's about creating the illusion of the best body; you don't need the smallest waist if you have the broadest shoulders, and a 20" arm can get there with 19" of biceps and 1" of triceps. It's all about illusion and that's what Darren Meade's success and expertise in the sports nutrition field is - an illusion.
Darren Meade, fact versus fiction
The industry standard for the position Meade held in sales/marketing would actually be a minimum of 3% (net) on total sales - not less than 1.5%, as Darren was awarded. Not quite what we'd think of, when we throw around words like "architect" and "co-founder". The information on fair market value for his job never made it into the Progenex press release (or Wikipedia, or anywhere else).Rags to Riches (to Rags again)
Still, $1.5 million dollars is a lot of money by most standards, and surely the "architect" of one of the most successful brands in the history of sports nutrition would easily turn that money into yet another success. But that's not what happened. In fact, Meade lost most of the money from his settlement a couple of years after he won it. MetRx was sold in 1999 and by 2001, Darren Meade was ordered to pay $1,106,000 (plus interest!) after being successfully sued by Beale Research Center (case # 310604, Superior Court of California, for San Francisco -(Click Photo to Enlarge):
Remember the contingency lawyer that Darren used to get his $1.5m settlement against MetRx? Well, when we subtract a standard 1/3rd fee from that case, Meade was probably left with about a million bucks. Since he lost this lawsuit (using the same lawyer, ironically), for over a million dollars. Meade actually walked away with negative $106,000 dollars from his blockbuster career in the nutritional industry. Although we see a lot of online talk about the money Darren won, we rarely hear about the fact that he lost it almost immediately.
Still, that's not so bad when you consider what happened with one of Meade's other lawyers:
On 06/14/2005 Meade hired an attorney (Vernon C. Jolley), and by 07/18/2006, just over a year later, Jolley sued Meade (06CC08186) and was awarded a judgment on 10/23/2007. You know it's bad when the lawyer you hire ends up suing you himself!
Meade stalks former girlfriend, threatens her safety...
Earlier in 2001, before he lost all of the MetRx money, Meade had a restraining order filed on him by his former girlfriend, because of death threats that eventually led to her fleeing the state (with him following):
So, although we might see Darren badmouthing his former girlfriend during interviews, we never hear about the restraining order she took out on him. In fact, we hear about his legal victories and lawsuits where he is the plaintiff all over the 'net, but we never hear about his established pattern of being sued for failure to pay his debts (collections) or the suits filed against him for breach of contract:
In the end, what we find when we look at Darren Meade, is a guy who has made an entire career on distorting the facts surrounding his involvement in numerous successful ventures. That time is over, and these are the real facts and the real truth surrounding this man.
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