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Activist Investor Burkle Pushes New CEO on Barnes & Noble

2010-03-18 10:53:38

Activist Investor Ron Burkle, a major investor in Barnes & Noble (BKS) NYSE, has been pressuring Barnes & Noble's board for some time.  A few weeks back, Burkle accused B&N's board of protecting the controlling family's interests in the company after he tried unsuccessfully to increase his share in the company.  Burkle has been viewed by the board and many others as working to take over the struggling book retailer.  Today, shortly after the latest major dust up with Burkle,  the firm announced that William Lynch would succeed Steven Riggio as CEO.  Riggio, who is a member of the controlling family, after he leaves his CEO position will remain as the vice chairman of the firm.  The company's press release stated Riggio would remain actively involved in the company. Lynch, who has run the firm's ecommerce business, has been viewed as the person responsible for launching B&N's eReader the Nook which has been intended to compete with Amazon's Kindle and now Apples iPad.  Besides the promotion of Lynch, the company also announced that the firm's chief operating officer, Mitchell Klipper, would be promoted to CEO of the firm's retail group. Most analysts will likely view the latest moves as way to thwart further attempts by Burkle to get his way with the firm.  There is no way this recent move puts an end to the drama playing out behind the scenes for control of the firm.  In addition to Burkle, another activist investment firm recently bought a large portion of the firm as well.  Stay tuned.

Canada's WestJet CEO Resigns

2010-03-16 10:45:51

Westjet WJA (TSX), Canada's second largest airline and for some time considered its most successful, Monday announced the sudden resignation of its CEO Sean Durfy.  Durfy took over the company's CEO position back in 2007.  He has been with the airline since 2004 when he joined to head the airline's marketing, sales and airport operations.  While Durfy has been instrumental in much of the low cost airlines success over the last few years, he has also been in charge of its efforts to grow which have seen a number of bumps in the road lately.  The low cost airline has been experiencing ongoing implementation problems with its new reservations systems and has found itself straining under its continuing efforts to grow. Durfy's resignation announcement was coupled with the airline's appointment of Gregg Saretsky as Durfy's successor.  Saretsky, the company's current executive vice president of operations and vice president of WestJet Vacations, will take over as of April 1.  Saretsky has only been with the firm since June 2009.  He came to WestJet from Alaska Airlines where he worked for a decade.  Prior to Alaska Airlines, Saretsky worked for the defunct Canadian Airlines. Durfy announced his resignation yesterday.  In the press release he was quoted,

"This was a very difficult decision for me; however, after careful consideration, I have decided that this is best for me and my family," ... "Those things I set out to accomplish at WestJet have now been achieved and I believe this is an appropriate time to allow others to carry the torch while I spend more time with my young family."

After an agreed upon transition period up to September 1, Durfy will leave the firm and resign from the board of directors. Despite many of the growing pains the airline has experienced lately, overall Durfy appears to have done a good job in managing the company.  It will be very interesting to see what type of stamp Saretsky will put on the firm. Stay tuned. For more: Financial Post CTV News The Vancouver Sun I Aviation CA (Update March 17)

Recommended Reading - Leading in Turbulent Times, Pearson Books

2010-03-10 12:17:36

Kevin Kelly, the CEO of executive search firm Heidrick and Struggles, and Gary Hayes, a partner in Hayes Brunswick & Partners, have written a propitious book, Leading in Turbulent Times published by Pearson.  The authors interviewed many top leaders who have managed to survive and often thrive during these difficult times.  According to a piece by Alicia Whitaker in the Huffington Post,

Kelly and Hayes found patterns among those who were being successful, across industries and geographies, with implications for anyone working to turn things around in this recession. Three things stood out for them: passion rules and carries the day, hard times call for a mastery of soft skills, especially communication, to motivate and engage people and keeping a long term vision in place and well communicated is the best way to keep focused and positive in spite of necessary firefighting.

The authors have presented highly organized perspective on the skills and techniques top executive need to survive today.

Technitrol Takes on New CEO To Watch

2010-02-23 12:07:41

Technitrol TNL (NYSE), a worldwide producer of electronic components, appointed Daniel M. Moloney to be its new CEO.  Moloney most recently has been an executive vice president with Motorola and the president of its Home and Network Mobility business.  Moloney replaces James M. Papada III who has been the firm's CEO and chairman.  The company has been planning for the succession for a long time.  Technitrol appears to have made a good choice for its next top executive. Moloney had spent ten years at Motorola in a variety of high level positions.  The announcement that Moloney will be leaving Motorola comes shortly after the firm made it formal in early February that it would be split into two independent companies.   One company to be headed by Sanjay Jha, currently the co-executive of Motorola, would run the mobile phones and setboxes.  This was the company Moloney would have worked for if he had not decided to leave Motorola and become CEO of Technitrol.Moloney appears to have the skills and background to run Technitrol.  Keep a close eye on his moves for the next year once he gets up and running.

Energy Solutions CEO Resigns, Stock Tumbles

2010-02-19 16:44:43

Earlier today Energy Solutions Inc. ES (NYSE) announced that the firm's CEO and Chairman, Steve Creamer, had resigned his position effective immediately. The nuclear waste storage firm's stock price plummeted today. Creamer's resignation comes just two months after the firm's CFO, Philip Strawbridge, had resigned. The company immediately replaced Creamer with Val Christensen, who has been serving as the firm's president since 2008 and was previously evp and general counsel. The apparent abrupt management change was examined in a story by Bob Mims for the, The Salt Lake Tribune,

...slide may have prompted the new chief executive and the board to hold a quickly-announced teleconference call at mid-morning out of Boston, in which Christensen stressed that Creamer's departure - though coming earlier than expected - had been part of a succession plan approved by the board early last year.

"This was going to happen this year," Christensen said. However, he flatly refused to release detailed information on the reasons for Creamer's admittedly "abrupt" decision to resign some one to five months earlier than originally scheduled. Christensen said Creamer made his decision during a board meeting on Thursday.

"About a year ago, I was made [EnergySolutions] president as part of a longer term succession plan. The board and CEO Steve Creamer identified me as the most likely candidate. Steve's plan throughout the [past] year was to depart the company sometime in the spring or summer [of 2010]."

The dramatic management change requires investors to keep an extremely close eye on next week's fourth quarter earnings announcement and moves that top management takes over the next six to twelve months.