Big Rigs, Posh Digs, Fast Cars, Dark Bars!

This is a true story with all of the ingredients of a best-selling fictional thriller -- divorce, death, drug busts, embezzlement, family feuds, high -stakes gambling, lesbian/stripper relationships, plots for revenge, out-of-control partying, and the full-blown lifestyles that accompanied all of the above. The national media stories are probably known to all two-million of the drivers in the trucking industry. They know RICO and fraud charges have been filed. But, what no one knows are the behind-the-scenes stories, as told by the former employees who lost the most.

This is the true story of crime and "road rage" in the executive suite of one of America's leading trucking companies. The story begins when the highly regarded founder and owner of the Arrow Trucking Company is killed in a hunting accident. His widow then appoints their only son, Douglas, to be the new CEO. His only qualification is that he is known to be "the apple of his mother's eye." He had no experience in anything. He had only a high school education and had never worked a day in his life. He was best known as a young, wealthy and very arrogant party boy. He was further described as being an "egotistical jerk." Accordingly, the end of the story is predictable. No one could have predicted the shocking events that played out along the way. At the time of his father's death, the company owned over 1,200 tractors and 1,400 flatbeds, and had negligible debt. The company had more than 1,400 employees. Revenues exceeded $250 million annually. Eight years later audits showed $8.55 million in assets and $99.97 million in liabilities. It proved to be one hell of a ride. It didn't take long for "Dougie" to live up to his reputation. His employees soon referred to Doug Pielsticker as "Smug Pigstinker." Respect for this new leader was as impossible to find, as was the leader himself. On his first day on the job he arrived in his chauffeur-driven limousine promptly at 10:45 a.m. It was to become his nearly-everyday starting time. His first task was to clean out his father's office. And, clean-out he did, tossing everything but the furniture, inclusive of all of the family pictures. He was far more interested in his inheritance than his heritage. He was also much more interested in furthering his personal lifestyle. And, he was in the right place. Later audits indicated he trucked out nearly $40 million -- all to his personal accounts in support of his lifestyle. He then fired nearly all of his dad's management team and replaced them with his own drinking, partying pals. Immediately the downhill ride commenced. With Doug behind the wheel and his pals on board, corporate assets began to disappear. Audits later discovered they had been hauled to the personal accounts of this new CEO and his new-found "partners in crime." Some of the more entertaining stories within this story include: the gift of a new Porsche to a stripper he just saw perform in a bar; his ensuing marriage to the stripper who leaves him for a television news anchor who was the wife a prominent Tulsa businessman; his need for in-home help to maintain his closet and change light bulbs; the content of his frequent $80,000 monthly charges to his company issued American Express card; and much, much more.

Hood is a veteran of more than forty years in the advertising, marketing and public relations business. At the time of his retirement from the advertising agency business, his agency ranked in the Top 100 in the world, having offices in six cities, more than 200 employees and annual billings in excess of $80 million. Following his retirement from the advertising agency business, Hood purchased a patent for "calculators for shopping carts." He then re-patented the concept, adding an advertising image area. Hood then further developed fourteen patented products and founded the ADDvantage Media Group, Inc., an in-store advertising network comprised of major grocery chains and mass merchants -- including Wal-Mart and K-Mart. He took the company public and served as its president and CEO, for nine years, during which time the company became a major player in the in-store advertising business. Hood is a past member of the "Advertising Age" Editorial Review Board, the board of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), and the board of the Point of Purchase Advertising Institute (POPAI). He has held numerous regional and national positions within each. His creative writing skills have garnered him several regional and national ADDY's and first place awards from the International, New York and Chicago Film Festivals. Hood is the author of "Wal-Mart's EGOnomics -- The Greed Behind the Smiley Face" (www.walmarts-egonomics.com) which documents his experiences with Wal-Mart as both their advertising agent and a vendor. The book has received a FIVE STAR (out of five) review by ForeWord Reviews, which called the book "incredible." The Kirkus review stated: "Hood writes well ... a well-crafted story ... after reading the book, it will likely be difficult for the reader not to accept the author's claim that Wal-Mart is a corporate villain." Hood is a member of the Advisory Board of the University of Tulsa, school of Journalism. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri's School of Journalism, where he received a BJ degree with a major in advertising/marketing.