|
IN THE US, ‘A LITTLE LESS FUN’
By Joseph McCafferty
The career-life expectancy of the top finance spot at large US public companies continues to decline. In the past few months, several high-profile CFOs left their posts after short stints, including Sallie Krawcheck, who spent just over two years as CFO of Citigroup, and Alvaro de Molina, who lasted only 16 months as CFO of Bank of America.
Executive recruiters blame the difficulty of the job at a public company. “We hear from some CFOs who say ‘get me out,’” says Lorraine Hack, a partner at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. Many finance executives are opting to work in private companies or private-equity firms, she adds.
They continue to cite regulatory pressures and the tedium of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as reasons for leaving. When de Molina stepped down from Bank of America in December, he told Bloomberg News that regulatory constraints made his job “a little less fun.” And before Krawcheck left her post, rumors had circulated at Citigroup that she was unhappy in the role. In January, Citigroup announced that she would return to her old job as head of the wealth management division, replacing former CFO Todd Thomson, who left the bank following internal tension over his expenses. Former American Express CFO Gary Crittenden will replace her.
Scott Simmons, an executive recruiter at Crist Associates, expects the life cycle of one position to last three to five years. A study by Crist puts the average tenure of a Fortune 500 or S&P CFO at four-and-a-half years. In addition, Simmons says, CFOs are increasingly specializing in one aspect of the finance position, such as merger-and-acquisition work, turnarounds, IPOs, or compliance, skills a company may require for only a short time.  |
CFOs on the Move
Link Real Estate Investment Trust, Hong Kong’s biggest REIT by assets, has had a bumpy ride since it shelved its IPO after legal troubles in early 2005, and then reemerged as one of the territory’s stellar IPOs in November of that year. Since the resignation of Alfred Li Hung-kwan as CFO in April 2005, the REIT has been without a finance chief. Now it has one: Chew Fook-aun, who served as CFO for eight years at Kerry Properties in Hong Kong. He was also executive director of Edsa Properties Holding and Kuok Philippine Properties, both listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange. Chew’s service agreement sets his pay at HK$4.2 million per year, with an annual bonus of not less than 20%. Link is also getting a new chairman. Hongkong Land’s outgoing CEO, Nicholas Sallnow-Smith, will replace Paul Cheng, who exits in May ... Kenneth Hsiang joined Taiwan’s ASE Group in 1999, and in 2004 became the president of ISE Labs, a subsidiary of ASE Test. Now he has moved again within the semiconductor company to become CFO of ASE Test, replacing Freddie Liu, who will carry on as a company director ... Heinz-Joachim Neuburger, former CFO of Siemens (he resigned last April after being CFO since 1998), has been named as a suspect in a complex bribery probe at the German conglomerate. Authorities allege that a total of €5.6m was paid to officials in Vietnam and Indonesia to help the company gain lucrative business contracts. Neuburger is not being accused of actual bribery, but for not preventing the bribes, which he is alleged to have known about. – Jennifer Lee |
