Showing posts with label New Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Management. Show all posts
Monday, July 20, 2009
New AOL CEO Begins to put His Stamp on the Firm
Tim Armstrong, AOL’s new CEO, is beginning to put his stamp on the company. Over the weekend Staci D. Kramer of PaidContent.org published a memo from Armstrong outlining his new AOL management team. Armstrong is trying to work his management magic to make for a real turnaround at AOL. Check out the memo and get a sense of his latest team members.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Lenovo Jettison CEO After Poor Earnings
Lenovo SEHK (HK 992) the Chinese computer manufacturer is not immune from the weakening computer market. For the first time in three years, Lenovo reported its first earnings losses. The company also announced that its American CEO
William J. Amelio resigned his position. According to a story by Brain Kraemer of ChannelWeb,
In its third-quarter earnings call Thursday, Lenovo said its worldwide PC sales fell 5 percent year over year due to a continued decrease in the demand for high-end computing solutions. In China, specifically, which is Lenovo’s key market, PC sales dropped 7 percent. Lenovo’s consolidated sales for the third quarter fell 20 percent year over year to $3.59 billion.
Lenovo also reported a pretax loss of $90 million from continuing operations. The loss for shareholders in the third quarter totaled $97 million.
… Lenovo last month initiated a massive worldwide restructuring program that the company hopes will help it save approximately $300 million in the next fiscal year.
As John Paczkowski of the WSJ’s All Things Digital blog indicated Lenovo seems to have got in line behind Apple and Dell. The company has brought back its former CEO and Chairman. The company announced today,
(1) Mr. William J. Amelio resigned as an executive Director, the President and the Chief Executive Officer of the Company; (2) Mr. Yang Yuanqing became the Chief Executive Officer of the Company and ceased to be an Executive Chairman of the Board but will continue to act as an executive Director of the Company; (3) Mr. Rory Read was appointed as the President and the Chief Operating Officer of the Company; and (4) Mr. Liu Chuanzhi was appointed as an Non-executive Chairman of the Board.
Lenovo will need to really focus on its operation to effectively compete in the difficult computer marketplace. The company has a number of very fine products and if managed properly, should be able to weather the current economic storms. Expect the new team to focus even more on the Chinese and Asian marketplace. Stay tuned.
Monday, June 16, 2008
CEO Watch List - Martin Sullivan, AIG - Is Out - Update 3
Chalk up another CEO to the sub-prime credit crisis. AIG's CEO, Martin Sullivan was forced out yesterday, Sunday June 15th, after the company's board had an emergency meeting. Sullivan will not only give up his CEO title he is also leaving the board. AIG immediately selected Robert Willumstad, the current chairman and well known former Citibank top executive as AIG's new CEO. Willumstad will remain chairman. The board also selected Stephen Bollenbach, chairman of US homebuilder KB Homes and former chief executive of Hilton Hotels, as the lead director.
The dramatic changes came shortly after powerful activist shareholders expressed concern with AIG's management. See my previous blog for additional details on the concerns raised by activist shareholders. Sullivan leaves the world's largerst insurer according to Reuters,
... after it suffered two quarters of record losses from risky mortgage bets and its share price more than halved over the past year.While the latest management changes were applauded by some of the key activist shareholders. In another Reuters piece Eli Broad was quoted as stating,
"Both are proven, experienced and successful financial executives," he said in an emailed statement. "I expect that they will attract badly needed, first-rate financial and investment executives to AIG."
The real question for me and many others is whether Willumstad is the right person for the position. While he originally contended for the top Citibank position before Charles Prince another casualty of the credit crisis was appointed head of CitiGroup his background was in consumer banking. He is not a real insurance guy. According to report he did have insurance companies reporting directly to him when he was Chief Operating Officer of CitiGroup but that may not be sufficient. At a minimum expect further management changes. The Willumstad and Bollenbach appointments will not be sufficient alone to turn the huge AIG ship around but at least it is a well-needed start.
AIG is already in the process of searching for a new CFO. Expect more changes as Willumstad works to get a handle on all the problems facing the firm. He has already made a formal gesture of some kind to former CEO and Chairman Maurice Greenberg who was forced out under a cloud but still remains a huge stakeholder in the firm and thorn in its back. For some time now Greenberg has been one of AIG management's greatest critics. According to the Washington Times,
Greenberg has been one of most outspoken of AIG's shareholders, many of whom have blamed poor management for AIG's financial troubles. In a May regulatory filing, Greenberg wrote: "AIG is in crisis."
In assessing what might be next for the firm, Hugh Son and Dan Kraut of Bloomberg quoted an analyst from UBS AG, David Havens who said,
"AIG needs to go through some sort of process to prove to the market that it completely understands the credit risk that it faces,'' ... "Some sort of internal and perhaps external study might be necessary here.''
Watch who AIG appoints as CFO and make sure to stay up-to-date on future management changes, there are sure to be more. Willumstad has a tough task ahead of him, besides the sub-prime credit related problems, the insurance business has been straining lately under increasing claims due to weather and natural disasters.
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