Human Capital: Page 85

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    The EBRD’s Manfred Schepers

    It’s rare today to find a bank that plans to increase its lending. But the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is no ordinary bank. Set up in 1991 to support the private sectors of countries in central and eastern Europe, it later expanded its investments into the former Sovie...

    By Tim Burke • Feb. 2, 2009
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    Stepping Up

    “I wasn’t planning to stay in finance forever.” In April last year, Laurent Matras made good on his plan, moving from his post as UK finance director of insurer AXA to UK managing director at Groupama, a rival insurer. Though he describes the expansion of his responsibilities as “what I always wa...

    By Jason Karaian • Feb. 2, 2009
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    Scoping Out the Talent

    David Bronson is ready to pounce. Other companies may be laying off workers by the hundreds or even thousands, sending the U.S. unemployment rate to its highest level in nearly two decades, but at PSS World Medical, a $2 billion medical equipment distributor and services provider, the door is ope...

    By Scott Leibs • Feb. 1, 2009
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    Plenty of Pain, a Dash of Relief

    When the final tallies are complete, 2008 results for company-funded pension plans are sure to be dismal — so dismal, in fact, that Congress stepped in with some relief right before its holiday break. The Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 will temporarily ease some of the stringen...

    By Alix Stuart • Feb. 1, 2009
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    Moving On, Happily

    Much has been written about the high rate of CFO turnover, often with the implication that finance executives are bailing out or being sent packing. But new research from KPMG suggests that behind the numbers actually lies a story of collective success. CFOs aren’t being booted for botching Sarbo...

    By Scott Leibs • Feb. 1, 2009
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    Losing It

    In October 2007, Steven Crane aimed to align himself with shareholders in a big way. The CFO of ModusLink Global Solutions bought 10,000 shares of company stock at $13.80 a share. If the decision made him a better CFO, as management gurus would assert, he is certainly the poorer for it now. As of...

    By Alix Stuart • Feb. 1, 2009
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    How to Talk about Layoffs

    On the same day in November that it reported record revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2009, Aruba Networks announced it was laying off 9 percent of its more than 500 employees. In an earlier time the conjunction of good news and bad news would have been jarring, but not now. “We took a har...

    By Kate O'Sullivan • Feb. 1, 2009
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    Prognosis: Negative

    When CFO Tony Aukett went shopping for company health insurance last May, he paid careful attention to how each plan would treat employees. No, he wasn’t worried about whether the doctors knew what course of action to take for a given illness or injury. Rather, “I wanted to avoid the kind of plan...

    By Josh Hyatt • Feb. 1, 2009
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    “I Like Innovative, Disruptive Businesses”

    Nothing can scratch a diamond except another diamond, but a recession can carve deep gouges in the diamond- jewelry business. Take the holiday season that just ended: sales of luxury goods, including jewelry, fell 34 percent. Still, Marc Stolzman, CFO of online diamond and jewelry merchant Blue N...

    By Kate Plourd • Feb. 1, 2009
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    Week of the Falling Jobs

    In a grim reminder that the economic crisis is clearly a global affair, Tokyo-based electronics giant NEC announced Friday that it would cut 20,000 jobs.What’s more, even employees of companies with established international businesses haven’t been spared. For example, Boeing said it would elimin...

    By Stephen Taub • Jan. 30, 2009
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    Swinging the Axe

    The headlines screamed that January 26th was “Black Monday” for jobs, after firms such as Caterpillar, Corus, Home Depot, ING, Pfizer and Sprint Nextel announced cuts of several thousand jobs each, due mostly to the rapidly deteriorating global economy. Alas, the consensus among the corporate big...

    By Economist Staff • Jan. 30, 2009
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    Stopping 401(k) Matches: The New No-brainer

    On a day like Monday, when five big companies reported a total of at least 57,000 layoffs, it was easy to see why CFOs might want to stop providing a match to employees’ 401(k) savings. In many cases, it’s an easy way to cut a cost worth 2 percent or 3 percent of your payroll without having to gi...

    By David Katz • Jan. 29, 2009
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    Pay Pressure Boils Over

    This undoubtedly will be a pivotal year for finance in all kinds of ways. It is debatable whether one issue, executive compensation, is deserving of so much attention, given the deep seismic shocks across the financial system. Still, market and governmental forces are aligning in the direction of...

    By • Jan. 29, 2009
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    CFOs on the Move: Week Ending January 30

    Former Freddie Mac CFO Anthony “Buddy” Piszel has been named CFO and treasurer of The First American Corporation, where he’ll oversee financial reporting, capital markets activities and investor relations. Piszel was fired from Freddie when the Federal Housing Finance Agency took over last fall.N...

    By John Zhu and Kate Plourd • Jan. 29, 2009
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    Wall Street Bonus Babies Have a Cry

    One might think that a Wall Street professional getting a bonus for the horrific 2008 year, especially if it’s a bigger bonus than for the previous year, should be ecstatic or at least relieved. But that appears to not be the case.In an eFinancialCareers.com survey of 900 Wall Streeters who were ...

    By • Jan. 27, 2009
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    Employer Health Spending Nips at Pension’s Heels

    Employers worried about the cost of employee benefits have lately been focused on traditional defined-benefit plans. With the stock market plummeting to astounding lows beginning late last year, the asset values of those plans have similarly decreased. That leaves many plans severely underfunded....

    By David Katz • Jan. 27, 2009
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    With Money Tight, Who Should Get Pay Hikes?

    If your company historically has budgeted a total annual salary increase of about, say, 4 percent, in this gritty year the payout typically might be reduced to 1 or 2 percent. The question, of course, becomes how the meager pool should be allocated.It is a big issue for companies this year, the f...

    By • Jan. 26, 2009
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    Tech Companies Lead Layoff Moves

    On this week’s still-bustling layoff front, large technology companies dominated the news with vigorous head-count reductions. The most shocking was by Microsoft, which said it will cut 5,000 jobs — reportedly its first-ever massive layoff.The world’s largest software company said the eliminated ...

    By Stephen Taub • Jan. 23, 2009
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    Rank-and-File See Bleak Future

    Not only has CFOs’ optimism sunk to an all-time low, as reported in the most recent CFO Magazine/Duke University Global Business Outlook Survey, but their gloom is shared by their staffs.The Accounting and Finance Employee Confidence Index, a barometer tracked by recruiting firm The Mergis Group,...

    By • Jan. 22, 2009
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    Exec Comp Pot Boils for Proxy Season

    Executive compensation, long a lightning rod for shareholder activists, could draw more bolts of electricity than ever for the proxy and annual meeting seasons this year —  rife with global recession and government bailouts.Already, more than 100 resolutions calling on companies to give sharehold...

    By Stephen Taub • Jan. 22, 2009
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    Layoffs Mean Lawsuits

    Nothing in life is free. While companies are reducing head count to save money as the economy sinks, they should be prepared for the possibility of legal actions by laid-off workers, and for the accompanying costs.The number of such actions is rising in tandem with the pace of job eliminations. “...

    By Kate Plourd • Jan. 22, 2009
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    CFOs on the Move: Week Ending January 23

    Zale Corp., after asking CFO Rodney Carter to resign, began a search for what it said would be an aggressive new finance chief with skills suited to the tough economic climate for jewelry retailers like itself.The announcement of the 51-year-old Carter’s resignation came two weeks after Zale repo...

    By John Zhu and Kate Plourd • Jan. 22, 2009
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    Zale Seeks Diamond in the Rough for CFO

    Zale Corp., after asking CFO Rodney Carter to resign, began a search for what it said would be an aggressive new finance chief with skills suited to the tough economic climate for jewelry retailers like itself.The announcement of the 51-year-old Carter’s resignation came two weeks after Zale repo...

    By Kate Plourd • Jan. 21, 2009
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    Citi CEO, Chairman, CFO, Decline Some Bonuses

    Citigroup said that finance chief Gary Crittenden, along with the struggling banking giant’s CEO and its chairman, all declined to take incentive or retention awards.Chief executive Vikram Pandit and board chairman Sir Winfried Bischoff, along with Crittenden, won’t take the bonuses that are bein...

    By Stephen Taub • Jan. 21, 2009
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    Jobs: Body Count Piles Up

    It remains to be seen to what extent companies making layoffs now will go for another round later this year. But Motorola, for one, this week announced steep cuts for a second straight quarter. Motorola announced it will eliminate 4,000 positions, including 3,000 associated with its mobile devic...

    By Stephen Taub • Jan. 16, 2009