As the third quarter comes to a close, companies are making moves to steady stocks and alleviate social pressure, and many new faces are leading the charge. C-level executives are finding new opportunities to make an impact and provide stability for their organizations.
At Boardroom Insiders, our mission is to know what’s top of mind in boardrooms everywhere. Here are some of the most interesting executive changes we’ve seen lately.
Big Oil sees big change as Exxon hires first female leading executive
Following a trend of more diverse leadership hires in the business world and after pressure from investors to make leadership changes, oil conglomerate ExxonMobil has hired Kathyrn Mikells as senior vice president and CFO as predecessor Andrew Swiger retires after 40 years.
Mikells will be the first woman and outside hire to hold a top tier executive role at the company, which has been predominantly run by male leadership promoted from within.
Mikells is no stranger to the CFO position, or to taking on new roles. After a 16-year stint with United Airlines, ending with her serving as EVP/CFO, she was hired at Nalco, then ADT, then Xerox and finally as CFO at British beverage giant Diageo before making the move to Exxon this month.
This change comes at a time when net profit margins are slightly down after a major boost last quarter caused by chemicals sales and oil prices. The company slashed 2020 capital expenditures by 30% versus its original plan to focus on rebalancing the budget and reducing debt.
Game over for Blizzard Entertainment president
Video game leader Activision Blizzard has announced J. Allen Brack has stepped down as the leader of the Blizzard Entertainment studio after the State of California sued the company over allegations of harassment toward women and unequal pay.
Internal executives Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra are being moved up to co-lead the studio.
Oneal joined the company in January as EVP of development and previously headed up video game developing company Vicarious Visions, which is now a part of Blizzard. Ybarra joined the team in 2019 as EVP and general manager of platform and technology after previously working for Xbox.
Blizzard is the creator of many popular video games, such as Overwatch, World of Warcraft and the Diablo franchise. The company has seen walkouts and online backlash after allegations of misconduct. They have apologized for the initial handling of the situation and have hired law firm WilmerHale to review the company’s policies.
HubSpot leader changing roles after leave of absence due to accident
The software and customer service company has announced that co-founder Brian Halligan will not return as CEO of HubSpot following a medical leave after a snowmobile crash earlier this year. He is transitioning to executive chairman, and Chief Customer Officer Yamini Rangan took the reins as CEO, effective Sept.7.
In March, Halligan released a statement detailing some of his injuries and alluding to a return to the business.
“I have some broken bones, and I want to make sure I focus on healing so I can return to HubSpot stronger than ever," he wrote.
Rangan took over the leadership position in the interim and will continue in this role permanently. Share prices, which have more than doubled over the past year, saw an increase on this news.
Rangan served as chief customer officer and VP of business strategy and operations for Dropbox prior to joining HubSpot in January of 2020 and brings more than 24 years of experience in sales and marketing to her new role.
Despite an 8% drop in net profit last quarter, HubSpot has seen a steady rise in stock value over the past year and is a major player in inbound marketing. Part of this optimism stems from the fact that the original successful leadership of the company will continue to be a part of its future moving forward.
More executives on the move…
- David Cunningham is Chief Innovation Officer, Winston & Strawn LLP.
- Madelaine Daianu is now Director, Data Science and Machine Learning Engineering, Facebook, Inc.
- Thomas Dobry is now VP, Advertising, Lithia Motors, Inc.
- Carolyn Everson is now President, Instacart.
- Alexis George is now CEO, AMP Limited.
- James Georgeson is now CFO, AMP Limited.
- David Hatfield is now Co-CEO, Lacework, Inc.
- Chandra Holt is now President and CEO, Conn’s, Inc.
- Joseph Ianniello is now Chairman and CEO, Argus Capital Corp.
- Rebecca McHale is now SVP and CIO, Peraton, Inc.
- Subroto Mukerji is now President, Americas Region, Rackspace Technologies, Inc.
- David Osborne is now CEO, CaseWare International, Inc.
- Jay Parikh is now Co-CEO, Lacework, Inc.
- Carey Smith is now President and CEO, Parsons Corporation.
- Dev Stahlkopf is now EVP and Chief Legal Officer, Cisco Systems, Inc.
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