So, like, last week, the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management decided to give the boot to a subcontractor called PathBuilt. This company was actually founded by some big shots at ReBuild NC, a state agency that totally messed up the response to hurricanes Matthew and Florence back in 2016 and 2018.
The Division’s director, Will Ray, was all like, “You’re fired!” after finding out that a mid-level official in the division who used to work at ReBuild NC helped steer the subcontract to her old bosses. Jessica Southwell, the official in question, suggested to the main contractor, IEM, in April that they hire PathBuilt. Turns out, the company was started by Laura Hogshead, Ryan Flynn, and Matt Arlyn, all former bigwigs at ReBuild NC.
But hey, the drama doesn’t stop there. PathBuilt was hired to handle disaster recovery in western North Carolina, but they got the boot after some shady connections came to light. The state wanted them to work on software and technical services, not deal directly with storm survivors. And get this, two software developers working for PathBuilt also got axed because of the contract cancellation. Tough break, right?
