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BREAKTHROUGH | FOCUS Summer 2020
FIELDING GRADUATE UNIVERSITY | Fielding.edu
Michele Bettencourt’s
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my paradoxical
Beaut iful Lie
breakthrough
Alum had to embrace her trauma as a whistleblower to forge a new career path Fielding Trustee’s Film Documents Transition
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n early 2017, Michele Bettencourt was CEO of Imperva, a cybersecurity software and service company in Silicon Valley. It was a tough year, as she had lost her father and was preparing to step down from her job. Another momentous change was also taking place. Michele was making the transition from male to nonbinary female, from Anthony to Michele. Bettencourt, the first Fielding board member who is transgender, says that she always identified as part male and part female. “I felt in the middle, and for years it was a massive struggle,” she says. “I had a life with kids, a wife, and a successful career in Silicon Valley. I was pretty good at keeping the secret, but had reached a point where I could no longer.”
By Rebecca Stafford, PhD “My last year as president and CEO was very messy for me,” she recalls. “I was becoming unhinged. I had formed a production company and we began to capture footage of my life. We had no idea where it would end up.” They ended up documenting not only her personal life, but her efforts to continue as Imperva’s CEO and her eventual departure.
Bettencourt had dropped out of Santa Clara University (SCU) to work in the burgeoning high-tech industry, eventually becoming CEO at companies including Verity, Coverity, and, in 2014, Imperva. She returned to SCU in 2006 to earn a BA in English. By 2017, both Imperva and Bettencourt were struggling.
Nonetheless, a single act of moral conviction cost me both four years of scholarship and my career. But it led me to places I never expected.
While editing footage, she had a realization. “I wanted to put an honest and authentic portrayal of what it is to go through this. People who do are often sideswiped by their own emotions and by being in a work environment. I accurately portray that, and also my desire to be an agent of change.” The resulting documentary, “Beautiful Lie,” had its world debut at the London International Motion Picture Awards in May 2019. The North American debut at the New Hope Film Festival, where it was nominated in both Biography and LGBTQ categories, and won the LGBTQ Spirit Award.
Cover image for Michele’s new album “New Normal”
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n my pre-August 2011 doctoral journey, my world was just as I had persistently prayed it would be for my scholarly work. My fourth year of scholarship was marked by all the traditional makings of a textbook classic dissertation: a committee, defined field of study, organization of study, focused research question, and solid literature review.
Michele serves on the boards of both Fielding and the Sam & Devorah Foundation, and also released “New Normal,” a collection of original songs. She and Karin Bunnell, a former Fielding graduate and trustee, recently celebrated 26 years of marriage. “This year has been the best year yet,” Michele says. But she reports that societal norms in business make it difficult for transgender people to find jobs, especially at top levels.
Inopportunely, my research topic – investigating public leaders involved in politicized public-private organizational environments – was, in fact, about my employers. I chose to stand my moral ground and reported both fiscal infractions and a political bribe I had witnessed. Quite predictably, the ensuing retaliation was ruthlessly painful, a violation of trust, a betrayal of what it meant to be a public leader, and a servant of the people.
“I think we are 30 years away from transgender individuals running public companies,” she says. “Today, it is only somewhat accepted to have someone who is gay run one. Remember when Tim Cook took over Apple? All the questions were about if his gayness was going to affect the company.” For now, Michele says she’s landed. “I feel great about myself and more natural as Michele as I did as Anthony. Then I was known as ‘AB.’ Now I’m ‘MB.’ But I’m not hung up on pronouns, I’m just happy to be me.” •
I vividly remember the morning I met with the district attorney and his staunchly suited local and federal entourage. I mustered the courage to put on a brave face in hopes of distracting them from my trembling voice. Then I set into motion events that cost me something most priceless, while not irreplaceable, of all: what I would come to know as my biopsychosocial wellbeing and post-traumatic growth. With this single selfless action, I was stigmatized a “whistleblower” and bequeathed the ensuing employer retaliation against those who dare to tell the truth. Fortuitously, at this critical juncture in my advancement to candidacy, my scholarship
was supported by an institution that understood human nature’s oftentimes disruptive disposition when their student’s family, career, and scholarship suddenly collide. I remain deeply indebted to my compassionate committee at Fielding who continually asked me the hard questions and talked me down from the proverbial ledge. Their unconditional encouragement and support carried me during that period of life-altering defeats and triumphs. After two years of painful growth, discovery, and humility, a shift in my myopically held perception of the whistleblower experience occurred. That pivotal recognition was the accelerant for my personal healing as much as it was an opportunity to explore the journeys of others like myself. I never expected that their stories would not only validate and inspire my own personal growth, but also forge a new career path. It is the unique culture of Fielding that appreciates the power of pivoting during the most unpredictable circumstances that led to my eventual embracement of a once unimaginable dissertation topic: whistleblowing with employer retaliation. Admittedly, while the concept of suffering and growth is superficially a self-contradictory proposition, my recognition of this paradox in my personal life made manifest my
embracement of the opportunity to give voice to those silenced by the same fear and stigma that once held me “stuck in time” in my traumatic past. My shattering breakthrough has led me to a new career path. I have committed to help destigmatize whistleblowers, and to support their ability to break through, survive, and yes, even thrive despite the inevitable backlash. •
