Human Capital: Page 88

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    Know Your Severance Rights and Risks

    Can Wall Streeters do anything to increase their chances of getting a good severance package in the all-too-likely event of being laid off? Yes — but not a lot.Top-layer executives of financial institutions generally have employment agreements specifying severance terms. Many other key employees ...

    By • Nov. 7, 2008
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    Pension Funding Takes Big October Hit

    Measurements of the global market selloff’s damage to traditional pension funds is beginning to register. Funding ratios at the typical U.S. corporate pension plan fell 3.7 percentage points in October as stocks had their worst month since 1987, according to BNY Mellon Asset Management.Year-to-da...

    By Stephen Taub • Nov. 6, 2008
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    CFOs on the Move: Week Ending November 7

    • Greg Wood will replace Kathy Lanterman as CFO of Silicon Graphics Inc., starting on November 10. Lanterman, who has been with SGI for 10 years and has been CFO for two years, will remain with the company for two weeks during the transition. Wood brings experience from his role as CEO of Pro Too...

    By Kate Plourd and Jason Karaian • Nov. 6, 2008
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    Job Losses Widened in October

    A pair of new U.S. job reports — by outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. and by business outsourcing provider Automatic Data Processing Inc. — confirm what many people already sense: that positions are disappearing at their sharpest rate in years.Challenger Gray reported...

    By Stephen Taub • Nov. 5, 2008
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    The Axeman Cometh

    IN C-SUITES around the world, horribly tough decisions are being made about next year’s budget — and, in most cases, given the dire economic outlook, about whom to “let go.” This is perhaps the toughest challenge facing a boss, but there is no greater test of leadership. As Margaret Thatcher once...

    By Economist Staff • Nov. 5, 2008
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    EDF EN’s Philippe Crouzat

    “We have predictable cash flow and no risk of a margin squeeze.” These days, few finance chiefs are as confident as Philippe Crouzat, CFO of EDF Energies Nouvelles (EDF EN). The renewable energy group, part-owned by the eponymous French utility, enjoys large government subsidies for its products ...

    By Jason Karaian • Nov. 4, 2008
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    Standard Chartered’s Richard Meddings

    There’s no fourth floor at the new London office of Standard Chartered. The number is unlucky in parts of Asia and, given the bank’s focus on emerging markets, the architects did not want to run the risk of jinxing the building or the bank. With the financial services industry lurching from one c...

    By Tim Burke • Nov. 3, 2008
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    Start Ups

    In retrospect, six months ago wasn’t the best time to join a bank, as layoffs in the sector have been fast and furious since then. But Helena Farstad takes it in her stride. After all, should the bank let her go, it would be her third brush with redundancy before turning 30. “When it comes down t...

    By Jason Karaian • Nov. 3, 2008
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    Health Check

    From raw materials to wages, inflation is giving many CFOs a headache. To compound their misery, the cost of providing health benefits is set to surge as well.Consultants at Mercer released a survey last month of more than 800 companies across Europe, with more than half reporting an increase in ...

    By Gabor Taroczy • Nov. 3, 2008
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    Swiping Nest Eggs?

    Most companies encourage employees to put money into their 401(k) plans. Now employees can get that money out again — with a debit card. A company called Reserve Solutions (an affiliate of asset-management firm The Reserve) has been marketing ReservePlus, a debit-card system that allows employees...

    By Kate O'Sullivan • Nov. 1, 2008
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    Things Are Looking Up

    Even before 2008 gave us a September to Remember on Wall Street, CFOs were enjoying a notable rise in compensation, with the increases to their pay packages outpacing those of other C-level executives. From the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley through the subprime meltdown and into what feels like a per...

    By S.L. Mintz • Nov. 1, 2008
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    Making the Leap

    Faster than a speeding bank run, more powerful than a loan officer, able to lease tall buildings in a single bound: finance executives practically need to be superheroes to make it to the CFO’s chair these days. So goes the conventional wisdom, at least. Those who aspire to the top finance spot a...

    By Alix Stuart • Nov. 1, 2008
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    Flexing Your Muscle

    What soft economy? With your talent and track record, plenty of employers would jump at the chance to sign you up. That’s the frame of mind you should put yourself in when you’re negotiating a new employment contract. Having that leverage will help you pinpoint — and build on — the provisions tha...

    By Marie Leone • Nov. 1, 2008
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    Tenneco’s Kenneth Trammell

    The U.S. auto industry is sputtering in low gear, as tight credit and consumer fears choke Detroit’s sales. Kenneth Trammell, CFO of Tenneco Inc., a $6.2 billion maker of automotive emission and ride-control systems, watched the industry make a sharp turn in the first quarter of 2008 when consume...

    By Lori Calabro • Nov. 1, 2008
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    Feeling the Burn

    Among the early victims of Wall Street’s meltdown were several high-profile CFOs, and there are likely to be more, says Scott Simmons, an executive recruiter at Crist|Kolder Associates. “When companies miss earnings forecasts and fail to match their guidance, that’s where you’ll see more CFO casu...

    By Kate Plourd • Nov. 1, 2008
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    Happy Feat

    “I’m not feeling too bad,” Mark Ellis, CFO of specialty retailer Michael C. Fina, told us in October. He wasn’t talking about market conditions but his own physical condition: he had just finished a 16-mile run, part of his preparation for this month’s New York City Marathon.Ellis, 46, ran the ra...

    By Kate Plourd • Nov. 1, 2008
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    In the Eye of the Storm

    “There is no Armageddon scenario,” said Keith Sherin, the chief financial officer (CFO) of GE in an interview in July with 247wallst.com, a website. Two months later, Mr Sherin may have regretted his optimism. As the credit markets froze and investors panicked, he found himself embroiled in a fra...

    By Economist Staff • Oct. 31, 2008
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    How to Keep Your CFO Job amid the Crisis: Headhunter Tips

    When the shooting starts — literally or figuratively — the best advice is usually to keep your head down. But some executive recruiters counsel that now is not the time for timidity.In this current economic turmoil, they say, CFOs and other senior finance people can better prove their worth if th...

    By Marshall Krantz • Oct. 31, 2008
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    CFOs on the Move: Week ending October 31

    • Ten-year veteran CFO Clayton C. of Procter & Gamble Co., will retire from his role at P&G on Jan. 1. Daley, a 34-year veteran at P&G who will be succeeded as CFO by current vice president and treasurer Jon R. Moeller, won’t retire completely from the company. That final step will co...

    By Kate Plourd • Oct. 30, 2008
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    With the Economy Down, MBA Applications Are Up

    The application deadline for most MBA programs commencing next fall is still a few months away, but business schools are already seeing a spike in interest and expect 2009 to be a record-setting year.That means there also should be more applications from people who have already been in the work f...

    By Kate Plourd • Oct. 29, 2008
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    Waiting for the Tooth Fairy on Wall Street?

    Despite this year’s Wall Street carnage, more than two-thirds of financial services professionals are expecting a bonus for 2008, according to a new survey. Even more eye-opening, 36 percent are expecting a bigger bonus than last year. Whatever bonuses they ultimately get should draw plenty of a...

    By David McCann and Stephen Taub • Oct. 29, 2008
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    Departing CFO Cites P&G’s Crisis Resilience

    September-quarter earnings calls have taken on a new complexion this year for consumer-products-company CFOs — but doubly so for Clayton C. Daley, vice chairman and finance chief of Procter & Gamble Co. Today’s call was the last as CFO for the veteran of 10 years in the job, whose retirement,...

    By Roy Harris and Kate Plourd • Oct. 29, 2008
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    CFOs on the Move: Week Ending October 24

    • After a 14-month stint as CFO and executive vice president, W. Mark Schmitz has decided to leave his position at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company to pursue other interests. Replacing him as CFO is Darren Wells, who was vice president of finance and strategy. Wells joined Goodyear six yea...

    By Kate Plourd • Oct. 23, 2008
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    Steady Drumbeat of Layoffs Grows Louder

    Another day, another spate of layoffs announced. The growth in job-cut announcements is becoming reminiscent of late 2001 and early 2002, when the global economies crumbled following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and suffered the first of what could become two recessions in less than eight...

    By Stephen Taub • Oct. 23, 2008
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    Crisis Demands New CFO Skills

    The preferred skill set for CFOs is shifting quickly in the heat of the economic turmoil and the credit crisis. For many companies seeking finance leaders, the accounting and financial reporting acumen deemed so crucial in the early years of the Sarbanes-Oxley era has slid down the wish list over...

    By • Oct. 17, 2008