Sonim CEO Bob Plaschke leaves his post

  • Push-out Score determined
  • After almost 14 years in the position
  • Tom Wilkinson taking over
  • Plaschke will remain as Strategy Advisor to the Board at Sonim

(exechange) — San Mateo, California, October 30, 2019 — Bob Plaschke, chief executive of Sonim, leaves his position. As announced by Sonim Technologies Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Wednesday, October 30, 2019, Robert (Bob) Plaschke has left his post as Chief Executive Officer at the provider of ultra-rugged mobility products after almost 14 years in the role, effective October 29, 2019.

Among the 3,000 largest publicly held companies incorporated in the U.S. based on market capitalization, the average tenure of the CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months was 7.3 years, according to data compiled by exechange. On an accumulated basis, around 27% of the CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months left their posts after more than 10 years.

The announcement of Bob Plaschke’s move comes eight months after Maurice Hochschild took over as Chairman of Sonim Technologies, Inc.

Bob Plaschke’s duties as CEO will be taken over by Thomas Wiley (Tom) Wilkinson, a former Chief Executive Officer of Xplore Technologies.

The fact that Bob Plaschke’s successor is brought in from outside suggests that the board may seek to stimulate change with fresh ideas and new initiatives.

In general, an outsider does not have the constraints of an insider when it comes to leading painful changes or making unpopular decisions.

“Help Sonim execute on its growth strategies”

A reason for Bob Plaschke’s departure from the CEO post was not explicitly provided. Sonim Board Chair, Maurice Hochschild, said: “Bringing Tom in as CEO at this time, with his deep operational experience will help Sonim execute on its growth strategies, leverage our first responder market presence and accelerate the deployment of our solutions to customers across multiple vertical markets we are targeting.”

Plaschke will remain as Strategy Advisor to the Board at Sonim

“Sonim also announced that Bob Plaschke will assume a new role for the Company as Strategy Advisor to the Board and will devote his time to the development of strategic opportunities for Sonim,” Sonim said.

“Resign”

Sonim said: “On October 29, 2019, the Company and Mr. Robert Plaschke agreed that Mr. Plaschke would no longer serve as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and would resign from the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”), effective as of October 29, 2019.”

“Not a result of any disagreement”

“Mr. Plaschke indicated that his resignation was not a result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices,” Sonim said.

Share price decline

The announcement follows a decline in Sonim Technologies, Inc.’s share price of 78% since June 2019.

Chaired by Maurice Hochschild

Sonim Technologies, Inc. is chaired by Maurice Hochschild.

Maurice Hochschild has served as a member of the Company’s board of directors since November 2012 and as Chairman of the Company’s board of directors since March 2019. From 2001 to March 2019, Hochschild served in various roles at Investec Bank plc, an international specialist banking and asset management group, including Global Head of Project and Infrastructure Finance and head of commercial and institutional banking in North America. Hochschild received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

In the position of CEO since 2005

Bob Plaschke became CEO of the Company in December 2005.

Robert Plaschke has served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Company’s board of directors since December 2005.

From 2002 to 2005, Plaschke served in multiple roles at Sonim, including Chief Financial Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Business Development.

From 2001 to 2002, Plaschke served as Entrepreneur in Residence at Sutter Hill Ventures, a venture capital firm, where he served as a senior executive for a venture capital fund.

Plaschke received an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Northwestern University.

Push-out Score determined

The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding the management change on a scale of 0 to 10.

exechange reached out to Sonim and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.

Read the full story in the exechange report 44.2019 ($).