Annual and Quarterly Executive Turnover Point to Continued Economic Growth

Who would have thought, but for the first time in many years, it's the American Economy that is getting all the positive attention.  Some of the positive change is related to the precipitous fall in oil prices but more of it relates to improved ecoonomic policies and the ability of the American economy to adapt.  Liberum Research has been predicting positive news for the American Economy over the last two years.  Most of our predictions have been primarily based on the overall growth trend in executive turnover and the slowly improving employment situation. The latest executive turnover numbers, while not fabulous, continue to support positive growth for the American Economy.  The economy is still faced with serious employment problems, particularly for the long term unemployed, and a continuing drag in salary increases for the majority of the working population.  Increases in executive turnover, which Liberum Research sees as an important economic indicator, have remained on a constant positive trend.  Liberum expects executive turnover to continue in a positive direction as we move through the new year.

Liberum has put together below, a seven year quarterly breakdown of executive turnover totals for CEOs, CFOs and C-level executives covering North America. Most of the below quarterly numbers showed continuing declines until the second quarter of 2011.  At that point, the numbers began to reverse themselves.  Turnover at the executive levels of corporate America began to grow while not consistently and that trend has continued and is expected to be about the same for all of 2015.

Anyone investing in the market must pay special attention to executive turnover both at the top and the middle executive ranks.  Failure to do so, will result in lost opportunities or worse. To take advantage of executive changes, get a free trial to Liberum's Online Management Change Database.  Just call Richard at 212-988-5497 or send an email to richard@twst.com requesting your free trial.  Within a day of your trial, you will have access to over 200,000 data points from which you can generate ideas and daily information on who is changing jobs at the top and where they are going.

Below is a simple table outlining the quarterly and annual turnover totals as registered through Liberum Research's Management Change Database for 2008 through 2014 for CEOs, CFOs and overall C-level turnover.  

 Total CEO Turnover Comparisons   

Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
1st Quarter	745	491	388	346	680	583	500
2nd Quarter	596	380	321	581	665	619	527
3rd Quarter	533	409	298	713	636	627	557
4th Quarter	461	430	328	697	673	636	651
Annual Total	2,335	1,710	1,335	2,337	2,654	2,465	2,235

 Total CFO Turnover Comparisons 

Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
1st Quarter	593	332	296	280	640	495	468
2nd Quarter	551	326	273	404	612	557	595
3rd Quarter	438	279	256	629	598	582	550
4th Quarter	364	313	258	476	569	562	586
Annual Total	1,946	1,250	1,083	1,789	2,419	2,196	2,199

 Total C-level Turnover Comparisons

Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
1st Quarter	6735	4061	3453	2863	5442	3971	4083
2nd Quarter	7430	5051	3199	4041	5036	4102	4117
3rd Quarter	4865	3690	2522	5349	4235	4123	3950
4th Quarter	4277	3439	2381	4596	4197	4196	4200
Annual Total	23,307	16,241	11,555	16,849	18,910	16,392	16,350

The latest monthly comparison figures with regard to executive turnover for December 2014 as compared with those of December 2013 and December 2014 and November 2014 are as follows:  

• CEO turnover for December 2014 showed no change from that of December 2013, CFO turnover increased 2%, C-level turnover increased just 1% and Board of Director turnover declined 4%.  

• The the month to month change from November 2014 to December 2014 overall was somewhat more positive. CEO turnover increased 7% for CEOs, declined 12% for CFOs, increased 10% with regard to C-level changes and increased 35% for Board of Director changes.  

In the below report, Liberum has focused on 52 CEO changes of special significance for the month of December out of a total of 226. We have also put together the overall turnover figures for the month of December 2014.  The below information is just illustrative of how investors could view executive turnover and its possible relationship with a company's performance. The same could be done for COOs, Presidents, Chairmans, etc., just through Liberum's Management Change Database.

DATE       COMPANY   TICKER    EXCHANGE   MARKET CAP $ MILLIONS

12-01 Bison Instruments  BSOI  OTC  67

12-01 Idera Pharmaceuti  IDRA  NASDAQ  349

12-01 Legg Mason, Inc.  LM  NYSE  6292

12-01 Millcom Swed Dep  MICCF  8500

12-01 Pope Resources  POPE  NASDAQ  280

12-01 Pulse Electronics  PULS  OTC

12-02 Allied Minds  ALM   LONDON  7

12-02 Loews Corporation  L  NYSE  15433

12-03 Digi International Inc.  DGII  NASDAQ  185

12-04 Carbonite, Inc.  CARB  NASDAQ  383

12-04 New Jersey Mining  NJMC  NYSE  7

12-05 Arctic Cat, Inc.  ACAT  NASDAQ  430

12-05 Areva - Societe  ARVCF  OTC   4531

12-05 Bay Bancorp, Inc.  BYBK  NASDAQ  48

12-05 Francesca's Holdi  FRAN  NASDAQ  638

12-05 South Jersey Industries  SJI  NYSE  1968

12-05 Stanley Black & Decker, Inc.  SWK  NYSE  14970

12-05 Warren Resources, Inc.  WRES  NASDAQ  122

12-08 Innocoll Ag  INNL  NASDAQ  137

12-09 Abercrombie & Fitch Co.  ANF  NYSE  1961

12-10 G. Willi-Food International Limited  WILC  NASDAQ 93

12-10 Layne Christensen Company  LAYN  NASDAQ  157

12-10 Seaworld Entertai  SEAS  NYSE

12-10 Walgreen Company  WAG  70595

12-11 C T I Group   CTIG  OTC  11

12-12 Midway Gold Corpo MDW  NYSE  124

12-15 Bob Evans Farms, Inc.  BOBE  NASDAQ 1243

12-15 Crocs, Inc.  CROX  NASDAQ 1050

12-15 Lyondellbasell In  LYB  NYSE 41055

12-15 Spark Networks plc (ADR)  LOV  NYSE 86

12-16 Medbook World Inc MBOO  OTC

12-16 Sms Management  SMSUF  OTC  194

12-17 American Apparel, Inc.  APP  NYSE  128

12-17 Ampco-Pittsburgh  AP  NYSE   180

12-17 Crimson Wine  CWGL  OTC  231

12-17 Hudsons Bay  HBAYF  TORONTO  3746

12-17 New Peoples Banks  NWPP  OTC  29

12-17 Par Petroleum Corporation  PARR  NYSE 589

12-18 Avix Technologies  AVIX  OTC  719

12-18 Sierra Bancorp  BSRR  NASDAQ  240

12-19 Blue Ridge Banksh  BRBS  OTC   20

12-19 Bonanza Gold Corp BNZA  OTC  4

12-19 Huntsworth  HNT  LONDON

12-19 SupportSoft, Inc.  SPPR  NASDAQ  11

12-19 Table Trac Inc  TBTC  OTC  4

12-19 Tesco Corp  TESO  NASDAQ  539

12-22 Orca Gold  CANWF  OTC  30

12-23 Comtech Telecomm. Corp  CMTL  NASDAQ  530

12-23 Echo Therapeutics  ECTE  NASDAQ  19

12-23 Redux Holdings In  RDXH  OTC  205

12-23 Supernova Energy  SPRN  OTC  2

12-24 Takata Corp Unsp  TKTDY  OTC  922

DECEMBER 2014 MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS

C-LEVEL MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 1457
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Drugs/Biotech - 148
> Energy  -119
> Banking - 97

DECEMBER 2014 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 226
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Energy - 14
> Drugs/Biotech - 12> Banking -10
> Consumer Products - 10
> Metals/Mining - 10

DECEMBER 2014 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 185
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Drugs/Biotech - 17
> Metals/Mining - 13
> Computer - 10

DECEMBER 2014 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 517
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Drugs/Biotech - 68
> Energy - 49
> Banking - 33

Investors need to diligently monitor key management changes. Certain management changes should be viewed as a "special situation" that can have a direct and major impact on a company's performance and share price.

• New CEOs know more than the market about the company.  Their decision to take the position contains information. Likewise the departing CEO. Likewise departing CFOs.

• New CEOs will bring new skills and often-times a new direction.  This is normally significant, and worth analyzing.

Liberum Research, the independent research firm focused on corporate management change, has developed an online relational database designed to assist institutional investors develop special situation investment ideas related to executive management change. While special situation investing traditionally revolves around corporate restructuring, spin-offs and acquisitions, executive management changes, depending on the circumstances, can represent a short or long-term investment opportunity. 

Liberum's over ten year old database offers institutional investors the ability to examine an individual company, sector/s, group of companies, and/or geographic region/s/ locations via a metric of one's own choosing.  You can use the information individually or in combination with a number of other financial tools to develop unique investment ideas.  

ABOUT LIBERUM

The largest database of C-level executive change at public companies.  Frequently quoted in the financial press, Liberum helps investors monitor this important, continuous stream of investment events.  The data is also useful for investment bankers, private equity, executive search and consulting firms.  The data can be used in numerous ways.