Bonuses Not Limited in Massey Vote

At the recent annual meeting of Massey Energy Co., shareholders officially “opposed” a proposal that would have given them the right to limit bonuses paid to company executives, according to the Associated Press. This was the second straight year that the measure was defeated, the wire service po...

By Stephen Taub • May 20, 2004

Lights Out for Three Energy Executives

Three top executives of DPL Inc., the parent of Dayton Power and Light Co., will leave the company after investigators hired by its audit committee issued a report criticizing upper management.In a press release, DPL announced the resignations of group vice president and interim chief financial o...

By Stephen Taub • May 19, 2004

Is Finance Strategically Challenged?

Despite high hopes among top managers that finance departments can buttress corporate decision-making and strategic planning, finance hasn’t been up to snuff.That’s one key takeaway from a just-released study by Accenture that looks at corporate aspirations for their finance departments — and how...

By David Katz • May 19, 2004

House Approves Health-Account Carryovers

The House of Representatives has passed a bill allowing employees to carry over up to $500 of unused money in flexible spending accounts (FSAs) from year to year.FSAs enable workers to withhold pre-tax funds from their salary, enabling them to immediately save money on their taxes. They can use t...

By Stephen Taub • May 17, 2004

CFOs on the Move

Caesars Entertainment Inc. said executive vice president and chief financial officer Harry Hagerty submitted his resignation, effective May 12. The company named senior vice president and controller Wesley Allison as interim CFO.Hagerty said he decided to resign as he entered the final year of hi...

By Stephen Taub • May 14, 2004

More Restricted Stock for More CEOs

Restricted stock is playing a major role in CEO compensation, two recent studies have found.An analysis by the Corporate Library, a governance group, found that the median total compensation of Standard & Poor’s 500 chief executive officers rose by more than 27 percent last year, to $4.6 mill...

By Stephen Taub • May 14, 2004

How to Outsource Yourself to Your Former Employer

Jon Lieb was working as the communications manager for The Greenberg Group, a real-estate-consulting firm in Long Island, New York, when a few people in quick succession asked if he was available for some freelance work. It made him think the time could be right to go out on his own.Working for h...

By Eileen Gunn • May 14, 2004

CFOs on the Move

Cingular Wireless LLC has traded employees with one of its parent companies, SBC Communications Inc. Cingular named Peter Ritcher chief financial officer, replacing Rick Lindner, who was named finance chief of SBC Communications last week. Ritcher, in turn, comes to Cingular from SBC, where he mo...

By Stephen Taub • May 7, 2004

Make Room for Daddy

Now here’s a different kind of bond issue. In a controversial vote in 2002, the California legislature passed SB 1661, better known as the Paid Family Leave Act. Under the legislation, both male and female employees in California can take up to six weeks of paid leave to spend time with newborn o...

By John Goff • May 7, 2004

Forget Black-Scholes?

Let the mudslinging begin — again. No, we’re not talking about the Presidential campaign. We’re talking about the latest battle over the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s plan to require companies to treat employee stock options as an expense. Now that the long-awaited proposal is out, corpo...

By Craig Schneider • May 7, 2004

Friedman’s CFO Abruptly Resigns

Jewelry retailer Friedman’s Inc., which is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, said Richard Cartoon has resigned as chief financial officer and treasurer, effective immediately. He had been on the job just five months.The company did not provide any reason for Cartoon’s ...

By Stephen Taub • May 6, 2004

Pension Funding Levels Improving

The stock market’s strong performance in 2003 had a positive effect on pension funding levels among U.S. corporations with defined benefit pension plans. However, the extent of the improvement was modest because of the offsetting effect of higher liabilities, according to a new report from Standa...

By Stephen Taub • May 5, 2004

IBM Shuffles Include New CFO

International Business Machines Corp. named Mark Loughridge as chief financial officer, replacing John Joyce, who served as CFO since 1999.Other executive changes include the departure of Michael Lawrie, head of sales and distribution, to become chief executive officer of Siebel Systems Inc.; the...

By Stephen Taub • May 4, 2004

Martha’s Bonus Reflects MSO Performance

Martha Stewart may have resigned as chief executive officer of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (MSO) last June, but that didn’t stop the company from awarding her a $500,000 bonus last year — $200,000 above the minimum.Stewart’s employment contract guarantees her at least a $300,000 annual b...

By Stephen Taub • May 3, 2004

Trials of a CFO Whistle-Blower

Fired from his job as CFO of Floyd, Va.-based Cardinal Bankshares Corp. and its subsidiary, Bank of Floyd, in late 2002 after refusing to certify his company’s financial statements, Dave Welch won preliminary orders from a Department of Labor administrative law judge in January to get his job bac...

By Alix Stuart • May 3, 2004

Nortel Disconnect

It’s been a wild few years for Nortel Networks Corp. The Brampton, Ontario-based telecom company slashed its workforce by almost two-thirds, divested assets, and consolidated real estate. In July 2003, it reported that it was settling into “relative stability,” but CEO Frank Dunn and CFO Douglas ...

By CFO Editorial Staff • May 1, 2004

Hill on Wall Street

As director of research at Thomson Financial First Call, Chuck Hill helped make consensus numbers, analysts’ collective forecast of earnings expectations, a critical factor in investment decisions. His lucid analysis of corporate performance relative to these numbers helped inform scores of inves...

By CFO Editorial Staff • May 1, 2004

CFOs on the Move

Robert Deutsch will step down as chief financial officer of CNA Financial Corp. as soon as a search for a new finance chief has been completed. Deutsch joined CNA in 1999 after having served as finance chief of Executive Risk Inc. for 10 years. He said that his family life “has suffered under the...

By Stephen Taub • April 30, 2004

Employers Embracing Health Savings Accounts

Employers appear to be warming quickly to the concept of the health savings account (HSA), an IRA-like vehicle made possible by the enactment of the Medicare reform law last December.According to a new survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, 73 percent of 991 employers say it is either very l...

By Stephen Taub • April 30, 2004

Talking to the Press

Think of the public face of a public company, and more often than not it’s the chief executive officer who comes to mind. Jeff Bezos has been a media fixture since he founded Web retailer Amazon.com Inc.; far fewer people know the name of chief financial officer Tom Szukutak. At the Ford Motor Co...

By Lisa Yoon • April 30, 2004

Failing Grade for Performance Management

Just 30 percent of workers believe that their companies’ performance-management programs improve performance, according to a survey of 1,190 workers by consultancy Watson Wyatt.Further, only 20 percent say their company helps poorly performing workers improve, according to the survey.In some rega...

By Stephen Taub • April 28, 2004

CFO Pay: BofA’s Hance Tops $24 Million

Bank of America chief financial officer James Hance Jr., earned more than $24 million in 2003.The finance exec received a salary of $1.25 million and a cash bonus of $4.125 million, the same as the prior year. Hance, who headed a CFO.com list of best-paid CFOs for 2002, was also awarded nearly $6...

By Stephen Taub • April 27, 2004

CFOs on the Move

Tom Bradley, chief financial officer of Enesco Group Inc., has been named interim chief executive officer. Dan DalleMolle, who had been the president and CEO of the supplier of gifts, collectibles, and home and garden decor products, died unexpectedly on April 20 from complications following a re...

By Stephen Taub • April 23, 2004

Are You the CFO Type?

“I want to be a CFO, just like you.” Several years ago, when Kevin Evans was the finance chief of software maker Placeware, his controller approached him with that aspiration.“You may not be just like me,” Evans recalls telling her. “Are you really willing to get out and promote the company?” Add...

By Lisa Yoon • April 23, 2004

Active Military Service for Bank CFO

The chief financial officer and treasurer of First Federal Capital Corp., parent company of First Federal Capital Bank, has been ordered to active military duty effective April 26.Michael W. Dosland, 44, is a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard with more than 20 years of service. His to...

By Stephen Taub • April 21, 2004