Odland resigns as Office Depot CEO
By Palm Beach Business.com
BOCA RATON — Steve Odland is out at Office Depot and Neil Austrian is in, at least on an interim basis.
Odland resigned Monday as chairman and CEO of the office supply retailer. He had served in those capacities since 2005. It’s Austrian’s second tour of duty as interim CEO of Office Depot.
Last week Office Depot agreed to pay $1 million in fines to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it failed to properly disclose estimates of declining revenue back in 2007. Under direction from Odland, Office Depot told a select group of analysts that the slowing economy would cause the company to generate less profit than had been projected.
That alone did not violate securities law. What did was the company’s failure to disclose that same information to the public until six days later.
Odland and former Chief Financial Officer Patricia McKay each agreed to pay $50,000 in fines to settle SEC allegations. Neither admitted or denied any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, Austrian has served as an Office Depot Director since 1998 when the company bought Viking Office Products where he had been a director since 1988. From October 2004 until March 2005, Austrian served as interim chair and CEO. He became Office Depot’s lead director in March 2006.
Austrian was president and COO of the National Football League between 1991 and1999. He was a managing director of Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. from 1987 until 1991. Before that, Austrian was chairman and CEO of Showtime/The Movie Channel.
Said Mr. Austrian, “Now that the worst of the recession is behind us and margins are improving, we believe that this is an appropriate time to seek new leadership to make the most of the platform we have in place, return to sales growth, improve financial performance and reinvigorate our franchise. We wish Steve well.”
Office Depot has hired Heidrick & Struggles to conduct a search for Odland’s permanent replacement. In the meantime, Odland remain with the company as a consultant through the end of the year.
Office Depot also said it expects to move into the black for the third quarter. Preliminary results released Monday showed the company earning $54 million, or 18 cents a share, on revenue of $2.9 billion. The profit numbers are after payment of preferred stock dividends, and include tax and interest expense benefits.
A year ago, Office Depot lost $413 million, or $1.51 a share, during the third quarter.
