| “ | As of today, he's no longer with the firm. | „ |
| ~ Sarah Robertson on Eric Dale |
Sarah Robertson is the secondary antagonist of the 2011 film Margin Call.
She was portrayed by Demi Moore, who also played Dallas Grimes in Beavis and Butt-head Do America, Madison Lee in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and the General in Animals.
Biography[]
Working for a New York City investment bank, Robertson had become the chief risk management officer for the firm. Sometime around 2007 she and other senior leaders at the firm became aware that the mortgage backed securities (MBS) they were selling were essentially worthless and that the sale of these securities would eventually cause a market crash. One of the other people aware of this was former engineer and risk management division head Eric Dale. Trading head Sam Robertson also knew there was a problem and attempted to warn them at the time, but was rebuffed by Robertson.
Instead of working to take steps to mitigate the crisis before it could occur, Robertson and the other firm managers kept selling MBS to unsuspecting clients due to the amount of money she and the others were making.
In 2008, the firm began a series of layoffs as the crash came closer to happening. Seeing a chance to get rid of the one person at the firm who might sound the alarm on the danger of selling MBS, Robertson made sure that Dale was one of the people laid off. But before he was marched out of the building by security Dale managed to give a program he was working on to Peter Sullivan, who was able to complete the program later that night and find that the company was in serious trouble.
Sullivan alerted Dale's former boss and his current boss to the situation. A series of meetings began with increasingly senior levels of management. At a board meeting firm CEO John Tuld and the board decided to sell off all their MBS in a fire sale, which started the 2008 market crash.
In the aftermath Robertson resigned under pressure from Tuld, made to spend her last day waiting in an office with Eric Dale with the promise that her severance package would be increased if she cooperated. While waiting in the office with Dale Robertson told him that she regretted not listening to him when he tried to warn her about the impending crash.