Home Depot CFO Tome’s Turf Expands

CFO Carol Tome’s star seems to be on the ascent at The Home Depot. In the course of announcing sweeping changes in its retail organization, the home-improvement retailing giant said Thursday that besides her finance tasks, Tome’s portfolio will now contain store-operations support, including asse...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 13, 2006

Unnamed Exec Resigns over Option Finding

Without identifying the individuals, Sanmina-SCI Corp. said an internal probe into its stock options practices unearthed “concerns regarding the actions of a former and a current member of management” and that company had accepted the resignation of the current manager.The two were “involved in t...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 12, 2006

Small Company’s CFO Quits; Options Cited

Karen Walker resigned as CFO of Boston Communications, a small company that sells billing systems to mobile-phone companies. In a press release, the company linked Walker’s resignation to its “previously disclosed internal review relating to stock option grants.”Also apparently as result of the s...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 12, 2006

CFOs on the Move

• Karen Walker has resigned from Boston CommunicationsGroup as CFO, effective immediately. The $39 million market cap company announced her resignation along with its general counsel’s “accelerated” retirement and the CEO’s job change to non-executive chairman of the board of the directors follow...

By Sarah Johnson • Oct. 12, 2006

CEO Pay is Too High, Directors Say

Nearly 40 percent of directors believe that pay of chief executive officers is “too high in most cases,” according to a new survey.Further, 81 percent of the board members favor increasing the link between CEO pay and performance, according to the 10th annual Corporate Board Effectiveness Study, ...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 11, 2006

Prominent Ex-CFO Bows out of Apple Probe

Questions have reportedly been raised about two directors—including one prominent former CFO—who served on a special committee examining previous Apple Computer stock option grants.Jerome York, a former longtime finance chief of IBM Corp. and Chrysler Corp., is an Apple director who had responsi...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 11, 2006

Options Probes Claim Jobs of Top Execs

Several more top executives have lost their jobs over the options backdating scandal.Officials at McAfee Inc. announced that the company fired president Kevin Weiss, and that chairman and chief executive officer George Samenuk has retired after a special committee determined it will need to resta...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 11, 2006

CEO Turnover Sets Record in September

Many CFOs lost their strategic partner last month as a record 152 CEOs left their positions, breaking the prior of record of 148 set in May, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm. The September record works out to 7.6 CEO exits per business day.A total of 1,112 CEO c...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 10, 2006

Survey: No Fretting Over Pension Rules

Much ado about nothing, again. Last week, credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service issued a notice saying that the affects of the new pension accounting rule would be modest in terms of corporate ratings. This week, company executives seem to be saying the same thing about rules governing c...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 10, 2006

KB Home to Delay Filing Over Options Probe

KB Home announced that an internal probe launched in August determined that the actual measurement dates certain stock option grants likely differ from the recorded grant dates. As a result, additional non-cash charges for stock-based compensation relating to these grants may need to be recorded....

By Marie Leone • Oct. 10, 2006

Delta Reaches Deal on Retiree Health-Care Benefits

Delta Air Lines has reached an agreement with most of its unions to change its retiree medical benefits, according to an announcement made by Farella, Braun & Martel, the law firm representing the nonpilot-retiree committee. The changes will save the bankrupt airline about $50 million annuall...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 6, 2006

Board Pay Surges 14% at Large Companies

Board compensation continues to soar. The median total pay for independent directors at the 500 largest U.S. companies increased 14 percent compared with last year — from $162,363 to $185,000 — according to consultancy Steven Hall & Partners.The firm’s report attributes most of the increase t...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 6, 2006

Ex-Apple CFO Resigns From Board

While most press headlines have highlighted the apology that Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs made regarding the company’s stock options “problems,” news reports have either overlooked or buried the resignation of former Apple CFO Fred Anderson. In the same press release that announced the Jobs apol...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 5, 2006

CFOs on the Move

• Eastman Kodak has hired Frank Sklarsky, 49, as chief financial officer to replace Robert Brust, who is retiring in February. Sklarsky ended his two-year stint as ConAgra Foods’ CFO on Tuesday. Sklarsky will report to work at Kodak on October 30 as executive vice president and assume the CFO tit...

By Sarah Johnson • Oct. 5, 2006

Q&A: A New CFO Checks the Mail

“Get your business moving,” is what the U.S. Postal Service website prods. And that may be one reason the government behemoth tapped industry outsider Harold Glen Walker as its new chief financial officer. With $70 billion in total costs, a workforce of 700,000, and postal service reform topping ...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 5, 2006

Companies Sued Over 401(k) Fees

Most employees who have 401(k) plans focus mostly on fund performance and the growth of their nest egg. But, a growing number of participants are scrutinizing plan fees, and are launching lawsuits against their employers based on their findings.Lawsuits have been filed against some of the nation’...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 4, 2006

“Spring-Loading” Raises Doubts at SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s deputy chief accountant, Scott Taub, said Tuesday that the government may have little basis for bringing accounting-based enforcement actions over “spring-loading” of stock options, reported Reuters. Spring-loading is a cousin to stock option backdating, a...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 4, 2006

Puny Company Gets Big-Time DOL Notice

The Department of Labor delivered a loud message to very small, single-proprietor businesses: No matter the size, no company will escape scrutiny if it violates the nation’s pension rules.The government agency, which enforces the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), announced that a M...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 3, 2006

Kodak Hires ConAgra Food’s CFO

Eastman Kodak has hired Frank Sklarsky, 49, as chief financial officer to replace Robert Brust, who is retiring in February. Sklarsky ended his two-year stint as ConAgra Foods’ CFO on Tuesday.Sklarsky will report to work at Kodak on October 30 as executive vice president and assume the CFO title ...

By Sarah Johnson • Oct. 3, 2006

Marvell to Restate Over Options Probe

Marvell Technology Group announced it will need to restate prior financial statements to record additional non-cash charges for stock-based compensation expense related to certain past option grants.The chipmaker also said that at this point, it is still unable to determine the amount of the char...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 3, 2006

Pain-and-a-Half

File it under “No good deed goes unpunished.” Two years ago, when the Department of Labor revised the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the intent was to clear up confusion regarding overtime pay. Instead, the always-thorny matter of who qualifies for overtime pay was made worse, not better, and a...

By John Goff • Oct. 1, 2006

A CFO in Bloggerspace

While it seems like nearly every 15-year-old with a computer has her own blog, the cultural phenomenon hasn’t been conspicuous among finance folk. But now they may finally be joining the conversation.In August, Tom Berquist, CFO of open-source database firm Ingres Corp., launched “On the Line,” a...

By Joseph McCafferty • Oct. 1, 2006

Pay Dirt

As Pfizer Inc. shareholders assembled in Lincoln, Nebraska, last April for the company’s annual meeting, there was a buzz in the air — literally. A small plane circled overhead, pulling a banner that read, “Give It Back Hank!”The sign captured the mood of investors who had raised angry questions ...

By Don Durfee • Oct. 1, 2006

Follow the Leaders

When Russell Lavoie walked into the accounting office of Epsco Inc. as an MBA student in 1984, the 24-year-old had no idea that another recent hire, CFO Chuck Dockendorff, was about to give him a real education.“He took me aside one day and said, ‘It’s great that you’re getting your MBA, but here...

By Laura DeMars • Oct. 1, 2006

Lee Ainslie: Not Hedging a Bit

Editor’s Note: This is an extended version of the interview that appears in print in the October 2006 issue of CFO magazine.Hedge-fund managers have always been a shy breed. They like to guard their strategies — and their identities — closely. But lately, government regulators have been trying to...

By Lori Calabro • Oct. 1, 2006