- Push-out Score determined
- After less than two years in the position
- Accolades, praise and thanks for Hobbs
- Steven Bruny and Kevin Riley taking over in the interim
- Search for a successor
(exechange) — Westford, Massachusetts, November 14, 2019 — Fritz Hobbs, chief executive of Ribbon Communications, leaves. As announced by Ribbon Communications Inc. in a news release on Thursday, November 14, 2019, Franklin W. (Fritz) Hobbs leaves his post as Chief Executive Officer at the mobile network provider company after less than two years in the role, effective immediately.
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 7.5 years, according to data compiled by exechange. On an accumulated basis, around 15% of the CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months left their posts within two years, and 25% left their posts within three years.
Ribbon Communications will undertake a search for a successor.
Fritz Hobbs’s duties as CEO will be taken over in the interim by Steven Bruny and Kevin Riley, most recently Executive Vice President, Global Sales and Services (Steven Bruny); and Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (Kevin Riley) of Ribbon Communications Inc., as Interim Co-Chief Executive Officers.
No reason given
In the announcement, Ribbon Communications did not explicitly explain the reason for Fritz Hobbs’s move.
Precise information regarding Fritz Hobbs’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Departure”
Ribbon Communications said: “Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN), a global software leader in secure and intelligent cloud communications, today announced the departure of its President and Chief Executive Officer, Franklin (Fritz) W. Hobbs, effective today.”
Share price decline
The announcement follows a decline in Ribbon Communications Inc.’s share price of 29% since October 2019.
Chaired by Dick Lynch
Ribbon Communications Inc. is chaired by Dick Lynch.
Richard J. Lynch is currently Chairman of the Board of Ribbon Communications. Prior to the GENBAND-Sonus merger he served as a Director of Sonus since 2014 and the Chairman of the Board of Sonus since 2016.
In the position of CEO since 2017
Fritz Hobbs became CEO of the Company in December 2017.
Hobbs has been a director of Ribbon since October 2017 and its President and Chief Executive Officer since December 2017.
He has served as Chairman of Ally Financial Inc., a bank holding company, since April 2009.
He served as Supervisory Chairman of BAWAG PSK, an Austrian bank, in Vienna from 2013 to March 2017.
He was previously the CEO of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin and served as Chairman at UBS, AG’s investment bank, Warburg Dillon Read. Prior to that, he was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Dillon, Read & Co. Inc., an investment bank, from 1992 to 1997.
Hobbs currently serves as a Director of Molson Coors Brewing Co., a multinational brewing company, and UNICEF USA, a United Nations program that provides humanitarian and development assistance.
Formerly, he served on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, the Frick Collection and was President of the Board of Trustees of Milton Academy.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.
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 Ribbon Communications and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 46.2019 ($).