C-suite turnover at WordPress.com parent company Automattic continues.
On Friday, tech news site TechCrunch reported that the company’s interim finance chief Jeremy Klaperman has departed less than a month after taking the role. He was supposed to replace former CFO Mark Davies, who was shown the door in late September after he reportedly “conspired” with board members to attempt to oust Automattic CEO and founder Matt Mullenweg.
The board had voted to place Mullenweg on paid leave and install Davies as interim CEO. But Mullenweg returned to his position a few days later, and the board members who attempted to oust him then left themselves.
Automattic officials confirmed Klaperman’s departure to TechCrunch and seemed to indicate that there were no hard feelings, with a spokesperson telling the outlet that the company will “always be grateful for Jeremy Klaperman’s leadership.” But, citing an anonymous source at the company, TechCrunch reported that Klaperman was “upset the board was considering external candidates for the CFO role.” The news site went on to say that the board never legally approved the title for Klaperman.
After publication of TechCrunch’s story on Friday, Automattic issued a post on the social media site X saying that “we consider it best practice to evaluate external candidates for critical roles alongside internal people stepping up.”
“Sometimes people are offended or surprised by this and they resign, sometimes it has led to amazing mentoring or advising situations,” the X statement read. “We won’t comment on any specific person, but as a company we’re always trying to optimize and redefine ourselves to serve our customers better and promote the ideals we aspire to around Open Source, freedom, liberty, autonomy, and hackers.”
The C-suite shuffling at Automattic, which bore some resemblance to the attempted board ouster of Sam Altman as CEO of artificial intelligence company OpenAI three years ago, is a reminder of the sometimes-fraught tension between executives and boards.
Davies’ brief transition from CFO to CEO is also another example of finance leaders increasingly being viewed as contenders for top leadership. According to a report from executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates, about one in 10 CEOs at Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies had been promoted from CFO last year.
“The COO/President role has historically been the No. 2 and CEO-in-waiting position,” Crist Kolder Managing Director Kristy Honiotes told CFO.com at the time. “While that is still the case (nearly 44% of the time), now CFOs with a broader mandate than finance are carving a path to CEO.”
