Read the disastrous update from a company's social media manager. Choose the correct phrase to complete the sentence.

_____ that the livestream microphone was still on, the CEO would not be facing such a colossal PR nightmare today.

The correct answer is Had he realized.

This is a mixed conditional linking a past condition to a present result ("would not be facing... today"). The inverted form of the past condition "If he had realized" is "Had he realized."

"Were he to realize" refers to a hypothetical present or future situation, which doesn't fit the fact that the microphone incident already happened in the past.