Prosaic
I heard from a reliable source that nothing untoward led to Tony Thompson's departure from Grubb & Ellis. It was compared to Eli Broad's departure from SunAmerica after AIG's acquisition. This is a poor comparison because AIG bought SunAmerica. Eli Broad did not have a choice about staying. Triple Net engineered the acquisition of Grubb & Ellis, a public company, to avoid its pending public offering. If Thompson wanted to stay, he could have stayed. Thompson was chairman of the new Grubb & Ellis, plus he is leaving still owning 16% of GBE (7.4 million shares at approx $5 per share is approx. $37 million, which is 16% of GBE's $226 million market cap). Broad got billions but never owned 16% of AIG.

I don't know what percent of Thompson's net worth is in GBE, but unless he is going to liquidate soon (and lose the 60% since the deal was announced last May) it still does not make sense to me why he is leaving. Why would he, or anyone, leave $37 million in someone else's hands , especially since it has already lost 60% in less than a year. I will take the boring explanation for now but will keep my ears open for alternative views.