Recently, more and more companies — including Walt Disney and Dell — are splitting the chairman and chief executive jobs. Indeed, in the past year, the percentage of S&P 500 CEOs who also serve as chairman fell to 76 percent from the 80 percent figure reported for the previous year, according to The Corporate Library.
Even so, a number of companies have bucked the trend and are bringing the posts back together. The most recent is Northeast Utilities. On Tuesday, Charles Shivery was tapped as chairman, president, and chief executive officer. He had been named interim president in January.
Somewhat similarly, Kraft Foods chairman Louis Camilleri will run the company temporarily because of CEO Roger Deromedi’s illness. Deromedi was admitted to a hospital last weekend with an undiagnosed medical condition.
Further, three other companies last week picked a single individual to fill the two top slots:
- Dynegy president and CEO Bruce Williamson was named as chairman, replacing the retiring Daniel Dienstbier.
- Banta Corp. president and CEO Stephanie Streeter will add the position of chairman of the printing company. Streeter will succeed Donald Belcher, who is retiring following nine years as chairman.
- Ampco-Pittsburgh CEO Robert Paul was named chairman.