Enter Sanctum: MySimon CFO Jumps to Security Specialist

Gene Godick, CFO of Verticalnet Inc., a Horsham, Pennsylvania-based B2B software maker, is leaving the company to pursue other interests. Godick will remain with the firm during its October 25 third-quarter announcement of its financial results and will stay on until the end of the month to ensur...

By Jennifer Caplan • Oct. 16, 2001

Employers Shifting Health-Cost Hikes to Employees: Survey

Faced with an expected 13.6 rise in health-benefit costs next year, 56 percent of employers responding to a new survey say they will boost employee contributions by as much as or more than their expected cost hikes.Further, more than 70 percent of the 200 employers are considering benefit cuts or...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Oct. 15, 2001

Merge and Purge

If Hewlett-Packard Co.’s bid to acquire Compaq Computer Corp. overcomes shareholder disapproval and regulatory hoops, new Compaq CFO Jeff Clarke, 39, looks sure to have a job, even though HP finance chief Bob Wayman has been named CFO of the combined company.Clarke will co-lead the merger integra...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Oct. 15, 2001

Merge and Purge at HP

If Hewlett-Packard Co.’s bid to acquire Compaq Computer Corp. overcomes shareholder disapproval and regulatory hoops, new Compaq CFO Jeff Clarke, 39, looks sure to have a job, even though HP finance chief Bob Wayman has been named CFO of the combined company.Clarke will co-lead the merger integra...

By Alix Stuart • Oct. 15, 2001

Jim Tholen, Careerbuilder.com

Jim Tholen is not your average CFO. For one thing, he insists that his title at Careerbuilder.com is not chief financial officer, but rather, chief strategy and financial officer. What may seem like a bit of bluster at first is, in fact, a reflection of Tholen’s strong conviction that CFOs should...

By Jennifer Caplan • Oct. 12, 2001

Planning and Performance Management: Chris Lewis, Jabil Circuit

When Chris Lewis was named CFO of Jabil Circuit Inc. in 1996, the electronics manufacturing services provider had three U.S. plants, seven major customers, and about $1 billion in sales. Most of the production work for a single customer took place in a single facility. The tools used to plan and ...

By Stephen Barr • Oct. 11, 2001

Get Out the Clubs: Longtime Safeco CFO Retires

Management at insurance company Safeco Corp. announced that CFO Rod Pierson is retiring effective December 31. Pierson has been with the Seattle-based company for more than 27 years. “I’ve enjoyed my time here at Safeco tremendously,” said Pierson. “I really feel like the company’s headed in the ...

By Lisa Yoon • Oct. 11, 2001

Sending Signals? Nortel CFO to Become CEO

Frank Dunn was appointed CEO of Canadian telecom giant Nortel Networks Corp. last week. On November 1 CFO Dunn will succeed John Roth, who will become vice chairman until the end of 2002. The appointment caps off Dunn’s 25 years with the company, the last five of which saw Nortel grow into a gian...

By Lisa Yoon • Oct. 10, 2001

Taking Care of Business? Office Depot Still Looking for a CFO

When Bruce Nelson was named CEO at Office Depot in July 2000, it didn’t take him long to put together a list of principles he hoped would characterize his leadership. At the top of that list: his desire to build a ”world-class management team.”And yet, 14 months later, one key position is missing...

By Justin Wood • Oct. 9, 2001

A Few of Our Favorite Things: CFOs Rate Perks

What perks do chief financial officers value most? According to a Hyde Park Communications survey, a company car and an equity stake topped the CFO wish-list. The poll of some 50 randomly chosen finance chiefs was developed by Taylor White, a Tampa Bay area-based executive search firm which speci...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 8, 2001

Set Aside a Reserve for Reservists, Consultant Cautions

When President Bush addressed Congress after the September 11 terror attacks, he had a simple message for the military: “Be ready.”With the government’s recent authorization of a call-up of as many as 50,000 reservists (for up to 24 months), a finance chief would do well to follow the advice of t...

By David Katz • Oct. 5, 2001

Revenue Growth: William Longbrake, Washington Mutual

What was supposed to be a career-altering job change for Bill Longbrake turned into a two-year sabbatical. In 1994, he left Washington Mutual Inc. after 12 years as finance chief to become CFO at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. He moved his family from Washington State to Washington, D.C.But ...

By Stephen Barr • Oct. 4, 2001

Glad He Met ‘Ya? Struggling Aetna Names New CFO

Officials at Aetna, the Hartford, Connecticut-based insurance giant, named Alan Bennett chief financial officer. Bennett had been serving as interim CFO since April, following the resignation of Alan Weber. Bennett will report to David Kelso, executive vice president of administration and finance...

By Jennifer Caplan • Oct. 3, 2001

Men of Steel: Bethlehem Loses CFO, Hires New CEO

Managers at B2B software specialist PurchasePro.com Inc. selected Mark Donachie as the company’s new chief financial officer. Donachie will replace acting CFO Richard Clemmer, who was promoted to chief executive in June but had remained in the CFO post until a replacement was found. Donachie join...

By Jennifer Caplan • Oct. 2, 2001

CFO Checklist: What To Do When Disaster Strikes

For many financial executives, the September 11 terrorist attack underlined a need to have an action plan in hand to help react quickly to a crisis. What should a finance manager do first?The top priority for CFOs and controllers, according to a disaster- response checklist developed by the Ameri...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Oct. 1, 2001

How E-Business Transformed Intel and CFO Andy Bryant

Andy Bryant is a consistent heretic.In 1998, when Intel chairman Andy Grove first vowed to reinvent Intel as a “100 percent E-corporation,” the CFO simply didn’t believe the Internet was the way to go. “I sat there and said, ‘Great, we replaced fax machines with online orders. Big deal,'” he reca...

By Tim Reason • Oct. 1, 2001

Anatomy of a Turnaround at Highmark

Three years ago, soaring medical costs and shifting consumer demands put more than 80 percent of the nation’s 55 Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in the red, according to insurance watchdog Weiss Ratings. A merger between Pennsylvania Blue Shield and Blue Cross of Western Pennsylvania produced on...

By Alix Stuart • Oct. 1, 2001

Softer Landings for Laid-Off Workers

How many employees has your company laid off lately? The question, which was laughably irrelevant just over a year ago, is suddenly very relevant for most executives — at least those who still have jobs themselves.In the first half of the year, U.S. companies announced plans for 770,000 layoffs, ...

By Kris Frieswick • Oct. 1, 2001

Not So United? Airline Hires New CFO

Managers at UAL Corp. named Frederic Brace chief financial officer of both the parent company and its United Airlines subsidiary. The board of directors has also indefinitely suspended the quarterly cash dividend on its common stock, which is expected to save the struggling company about $2.5 mil...

By Jennifer Caplan • Oct. 1, 2001

Finance Execs Need Overseas Experience, Say CEOs

Looking for that competitive career edge? Go away — far, far away — and don’t come back for a couple of years.Gaining international experience, says John Wilson, co-head of Korn Ferry’s CFO practice, has become increasingly vital to CFO advancement. In fact, he says, it is “probably number four o...

By Alix Stuart • Sept. 28, 2001

Looking over the Hedge

Pension fund managers may be long-term investors, but they are not oblivious to short-term pain. And like anyone invested in U.S. equities over the past 18 months, they are feeling a lot of pain.U.S. corporate pension plans invest most of their money in stocks and bonds, typically in a 60/40 prop...

By Andrew Osterland • Sept. 28, 2001

CFOs-Turned-CEOs: The View from the Other Side of the Desk

So you want to be a CEO? Wanna be in charge? The Big Cheese?Well, these days it is increasingly common for CFOs to ascend to the CEO job. According to research by Spencer Stuart recruiter E. Peter McLean, 20 percent of the CEOs appointed in 2000 spent time in the finance ranks. While he has no hi...

By Stephen Barr • Sept. 27, 2001

Coming to Comerica: CFO as CEO

Management at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Art Technology Group Inc. named Ed Terino as its new finance chief, replacing Ann Brady, who resigned in April.Terino joins ATG, which makes e-commerce platforms for corporate Web sites, from Applix Inc., where he was also CFO. In addition, he has held...

By Lisa Yoon • Sept. 27, 2001

Fear of Flying? Corporate Travel Policies Changing

Even before the terror attacks of September 11, many CFOs were revisiting their T&E policies. Generally, such revisits involved streamlining expense reporting and nixing the use of travel agents. But now, with the unsettling knowledge that a commercial jet can be turned into a weapon of mass ...

By Jennifer Caplan • Sept. 26, 2001

Lesson for Sylvan Learning: Promote from Within

Five months ago the executive management team at Baltimore- based company Sylvan Learning Systems Inc. reported it had begun a search for a new CFO. Yesterday, that search ended right where it began: in Baltimore. CEO Doug Becker announced management had decided to promote Sean Creamer, the compa...

By Lisa Yoon • Sept. 26, 2001