HOW QUALIFIED IS SEITEL MANAGEMENT?
From form DEF14A filed 6/22/1999:
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<<<Herbert M. Pearlman, a co-founder of Seitel, Inc., has been a director of the Company since 1982, and Chairman of the Company's Board of Directors since 1987. Since March 1984, Mr. Pearlman has been Chairman of Intersystems, Inc. ("Intersystems"), an American Stock Exchange listed company engaged in providing services to the thermoplastic resins industry. Since June 1990, Mr. Pearlman has served as Chairman of Unapix Entertainment, Inc. ("Unapix Entertainment"), an American Stock Exchange listed company engaged in multi-media entertainment, and in February 1999, he became Chief Executive Officer of Unapix. He has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Helm Resources, Inc. ("Helm"), a publicly-traded company with equity interests in diverse businesses, since 1980, and in June 1984, he became Helm's Chairman of the Board.>>>
Unapix filed Chapter 11 on November 27, 2000. See:
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Helm now trades on the Pink Sheets. See:
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I guess you have to give Herbie and the boys credit for their fine job with Intersystems (now EquiFin). At least they've managed to keep it off the pink sheets and the company actually had a profitable quarter 3 years ago. The stock is even up to 40 cents.
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Next in the DEF14A we have Paul Frame:
<<<Paul A. Frame has been Chief Executive Officer of the Company since July 1992 and President since January 1987. He was Executive Vice President of the Company from January 1985 until his appointment as President. He was hired by
the Company in August 1984 as Vice President of Marketing. From December 1996 to March 1999, Mr. Frame was a Director of Eagle Geophysical, Inc. ("Eagle"), a NASDAQ listed company engaged in providing seismic data acquisition services to the oil and gas industry, and from August 1997 to March 1999, he was Chairman of the Executive Committee of Eagle's board of directors.>>>
I don't see any mention of degrees earned by these individuals, so hopefully we can assume they graduated from High School. Paul is one up on Herbie, with 2 Chapter 11's under his belt, although Seitel's board deserves a fair amount of credit for bankrupting Eagle Geophysical as it was a Seitel spinoff IPO:
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This bankruptcy probably came in handy for Paul since it made for a nice tax write off after receiving over $2 million in bonuses on the Eagle spinoff?
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Then there's David Lawi, whose credits also include Helm, Unapix and Intersystems. Still no mention of any degrees though.
<<<David S. Lawi has been Chairman of the Company's Executive Committee since March 1987. He also was Assistant Secretary of the Company from May 1986 until June 1987 and from June 1989 until July 1993. Since March 1984, Mr. Lawi has been a Director of Intersystems and, since 1985, he has been Chairman of Intersystems' Executive Committee. Since June 1990, Mr. Lawi has been a Director of Unapix Entertainment and, since January 1993, Chairman of its Executive Committee, Mr. Lawi has been a Director of Helm since 1980, and Chairman of the Executive Committee since 1997.>>>
Walter Craig also has Unapix and Helm on his brag sheet:
<<<Walter M. Craig, Jr. provided legal and business advice to the Company, from time to time, from 1984 through 1998. Since 1993, he has been President of both the Mezzanine Financial Fund, L.P., and Core Capital, Inc. Both enterprises are engaged in making capital available to small and mid-market companies based on the value of their assets. He has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Helm since August 1992. From 1984 to 1992, he was Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs of Helm. Since April 1993, Mr. Craig has been a Director of Unapix Entertainment.>>>
William Learner not only has Helm as part of his claim to fame, he is also the Chairman of the Audit Committee for RentWay (the same position he holds at Seitel). On 12/14/2000 it was discovered that there were between $55 million and $60 million in overstated earnings on RentWay's books. I'm not sure what a "Chairman of the Audit Committee" is supposed to do, but one would hope it has something to do with accurate record keeping.
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John Stieglitz and Fred Zeidman both have Helm and Intersystems to their credit. Of course, somewhere along the line a person starts to wonder how "independent" Seitel's independent directors are.
<<<John E. Stieglitz is Co-Chairman of the Company's Compensation and Stock Option Committee and a member of the Company's Audit Committee. He is Chairman Emeritus of Conspectus, Inc., a privately held company, formed in 1976, engaged in providing services in the area of executive recruitment. He served as President of Conspectus, Inc. from 1976 to 1996. Mr. Stieglitz is also a Director of Helm and Intersystems.>>>
<<<Fred S. Zeidman is a member of the Company's Audit Committee and Compensation and Stock Option Committee. Mr. Zeidman has served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a Director of Intersystems since July 1993. He also served as President of Interpak Terminals, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Helm engaged in the packaging and distribution of thermoplastic resins, from July 1993 until its sale in July 1997. Mr. Zeidman served as Chairman of Unibar Energy Services Corporation, one of the largest independent drilling fluids companies in the United States, from 1985 to 1991. From April 1992 to July 1993, Mr. Zeidman served as President of Service Enterprises, Inc., which is primarily engaged in plumbing, heating, air conditioning and electrical installation and repair. From 1983 to 1993, Mr. Zeidman served as President of Enterprise Capital Corporation, a federally licensed small business investment company specializing in venture capital financing. Mr. Zeidman also serves as a Director of Heritage Bank.>>>
Considering the level of incompetence displayed by these men in their various positions, a shareholder might expect to see some sort of bargain on hiring these individuals to run a company with 120 employees. For some reason, that doesn't seem to be the case:
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