The real question is why....and they best way to get there is to know
where he is going. If he is leaving on really bad terms - chill
either one or both ways - then he wouldn't be sticking around to find
his replacement. So, if he goes to an insurance company because
that's his real love, and it isn't a biotech company or microcap, then
your guess is that he is ready to move up the career ladder. However,
if he goes to another micrcap, or worse, if he goes to another biotech
microcap, then I might get concerned. He has been there 3 years,
which means to me nothing really funky made him to a quick about
face......the "whoops big carrer mistake...let me get the heck out of
here quickly" kind of thing. Not that I expect much reaction, but if
MCDE's stock price tanks a little that might say a lot.....but I
jumped in at MCDE because of its management overall, so one player
leaving doesn't frighten me per se'.
SemiBull
PS - Here's a good example....
Ford's CFO Retires at 55 to Find Another
Company to Run
By KEITH BRADSHER
EARBORN, Mich. -- Eager to be a chief executive someday,
John Devine, Ford Motor Co.'s chief financial officer and
executive vice president, announced Thursday that he would retire at the
end of September and intended to pursue "wider responsibilities"
elsewhere.
Devine, who was passed over last year to become Ford's president and
chief executive, said that turning 55 last week had made him realize that
he had to move to another company soon, if at all. "It certainly caused
me to think over the last several months about where I am and what I
want to be," he said in a telephone conference call with reporters
Wednesday.
He added: "I think I could be a CEO. I think I could do that job very
well. It doesn't have to be a large company."
Devine is the latest in a long series of departures of the allies of
Alexander Trotman, Ford's chairman, chief executive and president until
the end of last year.
William Ford Jr., 42, a great-grandson of Henry Ford, became chairman
at the start of this year while Jacques Nasser, 51, became the president
and chief executive. But while many Trotman loyalists were pushed out
late last year, Devine is leaving voluntarily, Ford officials said.
Because virtually all of Devine's experience was on the financial side,
rather than in Ford's core automotive business, he was always a
long-shot candidate for the top job. From 1988 until 1994, for example,
he ran First Nationwide Bank in San Francisco, a Ford subsidiary then,
serving first as president and later as chairman and chief executive. He
was widely credited with restoring the troubled bank to financial health.
Thursday's announcement prompted immediate discussion in the auto
industry that Devine might move to California, where he is building a
house south of Los Angeles. Devine said that he had not talked with
other companies and did not want another job as chief financial officer.
Ford announced that Devine's broad responsibilities would be divided up
between the company's two vice chairmen. W. Wayne Booker, 64,
Nasser's mentor for many years, will replace Devine as chief financial
officer. He recently handed control of Ford's Asian operations to Henry
Wallace, a group vice president.
Peter Pestillo, 61, Ford's chief of staff, will replace Devine in overseeing
Ford's auto parts operations, real estate division and its 80.9 percent
stake in Hertz Corp., the nation's biggest rental car company. He will
continue to run Ford's departments for labor relations, legal issues,
government affairs and public relations. |
