Gone with 48 hours notice. But has been around for nearly a decade presiding over a massive decline in the stock price and the fortunes of this company. Should we be asking why such a quick departure, or what took the Board so long??
6 replies (most recent on top)
Ha!
He was blindsided, he may have seen something coming, at some point, but not that day, long scheduled meetings that day were cancelled at the last possible second. I’m not saying he didn’t have an exit plan, but that day, he was blindsided, doesn’t really matter though.
He was pushed out because all he did was play financial games, and that wasn’t appreciated by the board, mostly Jay. Steve’s gonna vacate ASAP too, just watch, he has a new lease on life and Brian rewarded him well, he will be gone by 2020 or I’ll eat my hat.
His last quarter, he asked the board to approve a huge compensation increase for the C suite. Wait and see the internal stock awards for 2018, he gave away every last drop he could without board approval, and when that was done, he shoved it in the boards face, he was smart enough to know what would happen.
I actually like Chris, he’s not an a–hole and still has integrity, doesn’t play finance games. Things are actually turning around it seems and accountability seems to be running down hill. Time will tell if he has what it takes to effect change, he knows he needs to thin the Brian management structure and reinvest in people that do the work. I honestly believe he’s committed to doing the best he can, and he’s pretty energetic. He will do it in his own style, but he’s not the kind of guy that’s gonna just feed everyone BS and push the status quo.
There are actually some nice moves on the horizon here, Concept is especially well positioned, Marlin is actually pretty excellent (user here), there were a couple other nice tech acquisitions in the downturn...
And if there’s anything we know that The Street enjoys, it’s a surprise!
The new CEO is Chris Usher, who had been COO of one of the business units.
Have you seen who the new ceo is?
As the announcement said, Hanson initiated the succession planning process last year, so this is only a surprise to the street and employees but not a surprise to Jay.