Annabelle Garner | |
|---|---|
 Garner in 20XX | |
| Born | Annabelle Elisa Garner 29 December 2013
Berlin, Germany |
| Citizenship |
|
| Title | CEO of Garind (2039–) |
| Spouse |
Amelie Garner (
m. 2038) |
| Children | 1 |
| Parent |
|
Annabelle Elisa Garner (born 29 December 2013) is a German business executive who is the current chief executive officer of Garind. She is the third CEO of the company, succeeding her mother Adrienne. She was appointed as chief executive on 1 January 2039, three days after her 25th birthday, in accordance with Garind by-laws. Before becoming CEO, Garner took a low-level management position with the company, before becoming executive vice president of the company in 2037.
During Garner's tenure as chief executive, Garind has become a world leader in the technology industry, and is a top-25 company by market capitalisation, the only German company that has achieved this. As chief executive, Garner has focused her efforts on technological evolution and innovation. She was named to Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2039 and again in 2044. Garner is the most successful openly lesbian chief executive officer by most metrics.
Early life
Annabelle Elisa Garner was born on 29 December 2013, in Berlin, Germany. Her mother, Adrienne Garner, was born in Michigan, United States, and was the chief executive officer of Garner Industries at the time of Garner's birth, and her father, Jonathan Garner (né Baumann), was born in Stuttgart, and retired shortly after he married Adrienne. Garner was born two years after Garner Industries' restructure, during which they rebranded to Garind and moved to Germany. Annabelle was expected to take over as CEO for her mother just as Adrienne took over from her mother, Alexandra, and a 2025 by-law amendment ensured this would happen. Garner completed her education at the secondary level. She and her parents opted to have her undergo an educational programme specifically suited for her upcoming role as CEO of Garind instead of attending university.
Career
Garner began her professional career in 2034 by taking a low-level management position, rising up the ranks of the company and eventually becoming the executive vice president for two years starting in 2037. The board of directors reported being impressed with Garner's leadership skills. In accordance with company by-laws, which state that, with the approval of the board of the directors, the first born daughter of the current CEO should take over the position at the start of the first fiscal quarter after her 25th birthday, Garner was approved by the board as the third CEO of Garind on 15 December 2039.
On 1 January 2039, Garner officially became chief executive officer of Garind. At the time of her installation as CEO, Garind was a Fortune Global 500 company, and as such, the transition was heavily publicised in German media. Many investors and clients publicly questioned the decision of the Garind board, saying that the approval was based on nepotism and not Garner's qualifications, saying that the by-laws should have been amended or that Garner's bid for the position should have been denied by the board. The board of directors later released a statement saying, "despite a lack of traditional qualifications such as a college education, Mrs. Annabelle Garner is clearly qualified for the position of CEO." Garner never commented on this controversy. After her first year as chief executive, many investors publicly changed their minds after the company reported record revenue.
In 2041, Garind's stock massively dropped after there was server downtime, but Garner was praised for solving the issue in around an hour and working to prevent this from happening. In late 2042, Garind acquired multiple companies in various fields, which they planned to use to build their next projects. It was recommended that Garind start a wave of mass layoffs to save money, but Garner personally refused, instead only laying off 0.5% of their workforce.
While Adrienne Garner focused primarily on growing the user base of Garind and focusing on fixing issues, Annabelle Garner has been noted for her commitment to looking to the future by evolving the company. Following with this commitment, in October 2043, Garind announced a new marketing campaign with a new slogan: "Building the Foundation of the Future". Garner said that this slogan would be how they run the company, and that their new focus is to enable other companies to be able to evolve further. At the World Economic Forum, Garner announced Garind's commitment to building new, dedicated servers in over 100 countries, which would be later be upgraded to the power that Garind's current servers currently run on, which in 2044 were the most powerful in the world. This process is currently underway and is expected to be completed by 2049 at the latest.
Garner's tenure has brought unparallelled financial growth to Garind, turning the company into a top 25 company worldwide by market cap. Garind is a top three company in Germany according to the Fortune Global 500.
Personal life
Garner married Amelie Garner (née Hofmann) in August 2038, around four months before she took over as CEO of the company. She met her wife shortly after starting her career with Garind at a company event. Amelie was present at the event due to her employment with a partner of Garind. The couple reside in Berlin and have a daughter who was born in 2043. Garner is openly lesbian, having directly stated her sexuality during a press conference. She is a dual German and American citizen, gaining the latter due to her mother being born and raised in the United States, but she does not consider herself American. Garner is the wealthiest German individual according to Forbes. She has previously donated to the Social Democratic Party but has not explicitly expressed a political affiliation.
Presence at spree killing events
Garner has been present at two mass murder events during work trips, namely on the Skyline Cross-Continental train and the 2044 World Economic Forum. These events were separated by three years. The perpetrator of the Skyline murders, Josie Gallagher, has denied all wrongdoing and therefore never gave a motive, but it is widely held that Gallagher specifically targeted wealthy individuals, as she had a distaste for the upper class. Thus, many people, including Garner herself, have speculated that she may have been a potential target of Gallagher's. Meanwhile, Julius Etornoll, perpetrator of the World Economic Forum murderers, stated that he targeted individuals involved in a life extension device developed by Foster Oil, so Garner was not a target. Nevertheless, Garner stated in an interview with BBC News that having to witness more murders just three years after the Skyline murders was incredibly traumatic for her, which was amplified due to the fact that she recently became a mother. She later revealed that she had been diagnosed with a mild case of post-traumatic stress disorder due to these instances, and she has temporarily paused her travel obligations since the conclusion of the World Economic Forum.