I wonder if there were challenges and disagreements about filling the board seats. Is it normal for seats to remain empty for almost a year for a company of this side? Maybe there was an inability to compromise that spiraled as the board shrank, until it was small enough to enable an action like this.
Just a hypothesis. Obviously this couldnt have happened if there was a 9 person board stacked with Altman allies. What I dont know is the inclinations of the departed members.
Good primer here:
https://www.onboardmeetings.com/blog/what-are-nonprofit-boar...
At least that will create some common reference.
Edit: it is also common for changing circumstance to bring pre-existing but tolerable differences to the relevant Forefront
These things are all about balance: can we do it? do we have to do it? is there another solution? and if we have to do it do we have to do it now or is there a more orderly way in which it can be done? And so on. And that's the sort of deliberation that shows that you took your job as board member serious. Absent that you are open to liability.
And with Ilya defecting the chances of that liability materializing increases.