Netflix CEO Reed Hastings stopped off at the New York Times Magazine to engage with a very ornery reporter on what the whole deal with Qwikster was. If the reporter really asked these questions and didn’t just spice them up later to make himself look like a badass, I’m surprised Hastings didn’t punch him in the face. [More]
CEOs
Former Sears CEO's Compensation Tripled In 2010
By 4.12.11
Back in February, the Sears Holding Company named Louis J. D’Ambrosio, formerly of IBM and of Avaya, its new CEO. As the company continues to struggle for profits and relevance, the Associated Press determined that W. Bruce Johnson, interim CEO from 2008 until this year, got a huge raise in 2010, which more than tripled his pay. For what? Not improving customers’ satisfaction with Sears, if our mailbox is any indication. [More]
Google Plays Game of Musical CEOs
By 1.21.11
Neglecting the standard mysterious departure-accompanying explanation “I’d like to spend more time with my family,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced he’s stepping aside to make way for Google co-founder Larry Page, who will take over April 4. [More]
Tell When A CEO Is Lying
By 10.19.10
To tweak an old joke, how can you tell when a CEO is lying? A: When their mouth is moving. Or, you can look for certain key phrases, as researchers did in scrutinizing what was said in corporate earnings calls by executives who later had to restate earnings. They found a few patterns: [More]
CEO Says He Will "Make Digg As Good As It Used To Be"
By 10.12.10
Here’s the latest dispatch from contrite-CEO-land. The social news site “Digg” has a new CEO and he started things off with an admission that the site isn’t as good as it used to be, but promises that fixing things is his top priority. [More]
CEOs Who Fire More Workers Earn More
By 9.2.10
An analysis of executive pay found that CEOs of the 50 firms that laid off the most workers since the beginning of the economic meltdown earned 42% more than the average pay for an S&P 500 company. Correlation doesn’t imply causation, but it’s food for thought, especially for those in the bread line. [More]
The CEOs Who Suffered The Most Massive Pay Cuts Last Year
By 8.11.10
There are pay freezes and then there is the CEO Paycheck Shrink Ray. CNN lists the CEOs who were the biggest victims of the latter. [More]
Oracle, Apple, Capital One CEOs Rank Among Decade's Top Earners
By 7.27.10
Being POTUS makes you age prematurely, and Lady Gaga is stuck in a 360 deal that takes a cut of everything she does. Screw that, I wanna be CEO. The Wall Street Journal has listed the top paid CEOs of the last decade, which is topped by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison at $1.84 billion. Steve Jobs comes in fourth with $749 million, and Capital One’s Richard Fairbank is fifth at $569 million. The WSJ also notes that “four of the top 25 CEOs worked at financial companies, two on Wall Street.” [More]
Get Shoved By The CEO Of eBay, Receive $200,000?
By 6.15.10
The NYT is reporting that Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay and current Republican candidate for governor of California, allegedly shoved an employee who didn’t do a sufficient job of preparing her for an interview with Reuters. [More]
Spirit CEO Justifies Carry-On Bag Fees
By 4.13.10
Executives love to justify price increases or staff reductions by hauling out the customer service argument, because then any complaint you make can be framed as self-defeating. (“Don’t you want better service?”) On that note, Spirit’s CEO Ben Baldanza told travel blogger Christopher Elliott last week that the new carry-on bag fee is really intended to reduce gate delays. Remember to send a thank-you card to Baldanza. [More]
New General Motors CEO To Receive $9 Million Compensation Package
By 2.20.10
Ed Whitacre, new CEO of General Motors, will receive a $1.7 million salary and $9 million total compensation package. That’s about twice what his predecessor Fritz Henderson received. Don’t cry for Henderson, though–he’s making almost $3,000 per hour consulting for GM for twenty hours a month. [More]
Ex-Merrill Lynch Boss John Thain Is A CEO Again
By 2.8.10
After successfully redecorating his office, merging Merrill Lynch with Bank of America, and then getting fired — John Thain is once again a CEO. This time he’ll be heading up a recently-bankrupt commercial and consumer finance company, CIT. [More]
Are Corporate Boards Ruining American Businesses? This Book Says Yes
By 1.15.10
The new book Money for Nothing looks at corporate boards: how they’re frequently hand-picked and ruled by the CEOs they’re supposed to keep in check, how they’re sidelined by various conflicts of interest and lack of accountability, and how the worst ones have massively screwed shareholders. [More]
Bank Of America Names President Of Consumer Banking As New CEO
By 12.17.09
Update your EECB contact lists: Bank of America has named their new CEO. The new man in charge will be Brian T. Moynihan, who has been the president of president of Consumer and Small Business Banking since August. According to BusinessWeek, the board chose Moynihan after an external candidate dropped out of contention. [More]
Top 10 Crappiest CEOs (According To Their Employees)
By 10.27.09
Glassdoor released its report of the 50 lowest-rated CEOs as determined by employee reviews on its site. I scractched out all the companies you don’t care about and ended up with this list of the 10 Crappiest CEOs (of consumer-facing compaines) (according to their employees)…
Soon-To-Be-Ex Bank Of America CEO Has $53 Million Pension
By 10.3.09
Ken Lewis is probably a little bummed out that he will no longer be the CEO of Bank of America — but how sad can he be with a $53 million pension?
BoA CEO Resigns
By 10.1.09
Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis resigned yesterday after becoming a lightning rod for criticism after his controversial takeover of Merril Lynch. Even though BoA has appeared in our Worst Company in America contests each year, it’s kind of sad because his office had a good record of solving our reader’s problems they sent in to the executive office. Too bad that ethos couldn’t have flowed downhill more.
Airline Employees Call Police On Angry CEO Who Chewed Them Out
By 9.28.09
This story combines two immutable laws of nature in a surprising twist: that executives don’t always know what their front-line employees are doing, and that airline employees don’t give a f*ck who you are and will call the police if you annoy them.
