Management clearly has its short list of favorite employees identified, regardless of qualifications. For example, senior technical managers that have almost no experience are now charged with technical oversight of projects. Note to staff: if you're not on that short list, you need to be considering other options. Considering the ongoing brain drain, I'm really surprised that AE keeps getting any business at all. There is a recent effort to promote from within, however, the pool of talent has shrunk so much over the years this will not work well. I see AE being sold off very soon.