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

Viacom CFO Receives $5.5 Million Bonus

Viacom senior executive vice president and chief financial officer Richard Bressler received a $5.5 million bonus last year.This was certainly no surprise to the executive or to other followers of the media giant. Bressler, who joined the company in March 2001 and became CFO two months later, has...

By Stephen Taub • April 19, 2004

CFOs on the Move

Toys “R” Us has named Raymond Arthur as chief financial officer. Arthur, who joined the company in 1999 as vice president and corporate controller, became senior vice president and CFO for Toysrus.com in 2000, and was named president in 2002. In November, the Wayne, New Jersey-based retailer anno...

By Dave Cook • April 16, 2004

One Giant Leap for Pension Returns

A survey of 100 of the nation’s largest defined-benefit pension plans revealed an average return on assets of nearly 20 percent in 2003.But watch your back, Alan Greenspan. The annual survey, by consultancy Milliman, also determined that the funded status of those plans improved only slightly bec...

By Craig Schneider • April 16, 2004

Acquired Tastes

If you’re the CFO of a company being acquired, chances are your salary—and the salaries of your staff—are among the savings promised to shareholders in the wake of the deal.But that doesn’t mean you can put your feet up on the desk and wait for a pink slip. Far from it. In many cases, the target-...

By Kris Frieswick • April 16, 2004

Short-Term Payoff for HR Outsourcing

Outsourcing human-resources processes can save dollars in the short term, but HR’s long-term goals seem more elusive.A recent survey by Towers Perrin was combined with face-to-face interviews to elicit responses from 32 companies — 26 of them Fortune 500 members — that outsource five or more HR p...

By Craig Schneider • April 15, 2004

Board Cash Compensation Rising

This can be a stressful time to be a member of a board of directors. This can be a very lucrative time, too.Of course, director compensation reflects market realities. Directorships have become more demanding in the wake of Sarbanes-Oxley; the supply may be reduced as many people are unwilling or...

By Craig Schneider • April 14, 2004

DuPont Cost Cuts Include 3,500 Jobs

DuPont Co., second only to Dow Chemical Co. among U.S. chemical manufacturers, announced Monday that it would cut 3,500 jobs, or 6 percent of its workforce, according to wire service reports.The job reductions are expected to contribute $325 million in annual savings, reported the BBC News web si...

By Dave Cook • April 13, 2004

CFOs on the Move

The Student Loan Corp. named Daniel P. McHugh as its chief financial officer. He had been CFO of Citigroup Central Europe in its corporate and consumer businesses in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria as well as in its consumer business in Poland.TV-station owner Paxson ...

By Stephen Taub • April 9, 2004

First Call Sheds Its Public Persona

Chuck Hill’s insights on the impact of restructurings on corporate earnings were sought by everyone from Congress to CFO magazine. The veteran director of research for Thomson Financial First Call just never expected to experience it firsthand.That changed on March 2, when the struggling unit of ...

By Lori Calabro • April 9, 2004