So is the structure basically this?
................Houillier............
.....................|...................
...........DeGrandpre..........
.....................|...................
............-------------...........
............|................|...........
........Petke........Curtis.......
I'm thinking Houllier has authority and control over Ali and Petke...don't know if he intends to deal with Petke directly (except in group settings) or go through Ali...
Ali while being a little above Petke in the on the field hierarchy likely doesn't have the authority to remove him...
And while Houllier has "authority" over de Grandpre it's not clear if he has the necessary expertise in the financial/business arena so in the real world de Grandpre may take direction directly from high ranking business types in Austria....