Not sure for how long the presence has been there. It is a combination of arrogance and incompetence. People feel sick when the presence is there. People sigh and roll their eyes when the presence begins speaking.
Shannon Levang, you need to leave and let a real leader get real things done. Up yours.
Ha! I've heard the same things about her too. From what I've been told she's the one behind letting a bunch of the testers go only to be replaced by a bunch of contractors who in many cases are new. They think automation is going to negate the need for all of these resources, and they may be right someday, but this automation isn't even in place now. So we lose all these good, experienced testing resources and for the next 5-6 months have to rely on newbies until they can maybe get testing automation in place. Really putting the cart before the horse on this one.