for the manager job, Nellie Bertram. When Jo finds out about Gabe's current personal issues concerning Erin and Andy, she decides to transfer him back to the Florida headquarters. She also tells the committee to grant Dwight an interview, saying she likes "a little bit of crazy." In the eighth-season premiere, "The List", Jim recounts to the camera crew how Robert California was hired as branch manager over the summer, but immediately quit, drove all the way to Sabre headquarters in Florida, and then convinced Jo to give him her position as the company's CEO (in reality, Bates left The Office due to her commitment to Harry's Law). However, Jo remains as chairman of the board, and Robert still refers to Jo as his boss. Later in season 8, Nellie Bertram re-appears, having been hired (off-screen) by Jo as Sabre's President of Special Projects. At the end of season 8, it is announced that Jo Bennett has sold Dunder Mifflin to David Wallace. Jo further plans to liquidate all of Sabre's assets, thereby effectively permanently dissolving the company. Josh Porter Joshua "Josh" Porter (Charles Esten) is the former Stamford Regional Manager. The character is first mentioned in the "Pilot", and he makes his debut in "Valentine's Day". During his time as the Stamford manager, he was seemingly a more responsible and competent boss than Michael, although, some episodes had implied that Michael's branch is more productive than Josh's. Josh later became Jim's boss, after Jim was transferred to Stamford, and it seemed that he thought of Josh as a role model. Similarly to his relationship with Toby, Michael resented Josh, initially because he felt that Jim preferred Josh's friendship to his own, and, while this was later proven untrue, Michael still retained a certain animosity towards him. In deleted scenes from the episode "The Convention", Josh states that he once spent time working in Israel, and also tells Dwight that he was once a member of the United States Coast Guard. In "Branch Closing", when it was announced in that the Scranton branch would be closing, Josh was offered a promotion to become the manager of Dunder Mifflin's newly formed Northeast region. However, he leveraged the offer to obtain a senior management job with Staples, throwing plans for the Scranton closing into disarray. As a direct result of Josh's decision to leave the company, it was decided to close the