Tell me if you’ve heard this one before.
Lexmark International, Inc., announced late last Wednesday afternoon that Rich Geruson has decided to resign from his positions as president, CEO and director of Lexmark for personal reasons, effective immediately. Geruson assumed the position in October of 2017 having replaced former president & CEO David Reeder who resigned in June 2017 for, you guessed it, “personal reasons.” Reeder had been named president & CEO in November 2016.
According to a Lexmark press release, a search for a successor is underway. In the interim, Lexmark will be led by an executive management committee consisting of Allen Waugerman, senior vice president and chief technology officer; Brent Lambert, senior vice president, chief legal officer and secretary; and Vivian Liu, senior vice president and chief financial officer.
“The board of directors, the company’s investors and the entire Lexmark organization remain singularly focused on profitably growing our business and continuing to deliver world-class, industry-leading products and services to our customers,” said Mickey Kantor, chairman of the Lexmark Board of Directors. “We continue to be very confident about the long-term success of Lexmark.”
One can argue that the timing of this announcement””a few hours before the beginning of the holiday weekend””might be viewed as an attempt to bury the news. But we won’t go there. We simply find it curious that two consecutive Lexmark presidents & CEOs would resign for personal reasons–months, and a little over a year after taking the role. Could this be an issue with the parent company Ninestar? Could this be an issue with the Board? Could there be issues at Lexmark? Could it be all of the above? Or could it just be coincidental?
At this point we don’t know and it’s extremely likely that any answers we get will be off the record.
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