I also do devil's advocacy work, and agree with MNquilter - I don't know any of the details and personally don't care who "endorses" it...I don't purchase because someone else told me to, I purchase after I do the research...and even tho I have a machine that has the name of our "quilt-in-a-day-diva" on it, I didn't buy it for that reason. (Did you notice that I can't even remember her name oops!) Since these decisions are made at very high levels, I doubt that any of us will every know for sure why Kaye Wood is no longer with Janome..and for me it doesn't matter...