- Push-out Score determined
- After eight years in the position
- Accolades, praise, thanks and good wishes for Graves
- Randy Martinez taking over in the interim
- Search for a successor
- Graves kept it short and said 39 words
(exechange) — Eden Prairie, Minnesota, May 14, 2020 — Jeff Graves, chief executive of MTS Systems, leaves. As announced by MTS Systems Corp. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Thursday, May 14, 2020, Jeffrey A. (Jeff) Graves leaves his post as chief executive officer at the supplier of test systems and industrial position sensors after eight years in the role, effective May 22, 2020.
MTS Systems will undertake a search for a successor.
Jeff Graves’s duties as CEO will be taken over in the interim by Randy J. Martinez, a former President & CEO of the Airlift Group and Group Vice President, Aviation Services of AAR Corporation, as Interim Chief Executive Officer.
Already a director
Martinez is already a director of MTS Systems. Generally speaking, most director-turned-CEO appointments occur following a sudden resignation of the outgoing CEO and signal a lack of preparedness on the company’s part to groom internal talent. Directors-turned-executives represent a blend of outsider and insider.
They don’t have the constraints of a pure insider when it comes to leading painful changes or making unpopular decisions, and they have more company knowledge than a pure outsider.
Having been a director, Martinez understands the expectations and dynamics of the board and has knowledge of MTS Systems’s organization, risk-management practices and strategy.
Career change
Jeff Graves’s departure from the CEO post is explained as follows. MTS Systems said: “Mr. Martinez, a seasoned executive who has served as an independent director on the Company’s Board since March 2014, will succeed Dr. Jeffrey A. Graves, who will be stepping down as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a director of the Company to pursue another opportunity.”
Graves will be CEO at 3D Systems
3D Systems named Jeffrey A. Graves as the new President and CEO, effective May 26.
3D Systems announced the move on Thursday, May 14, 2020.
3D Systems is a maker of 3D printers.
“Not due to a disagreement”
“Dr. Graves’s resignation was not due to a disagreement with the Company,” MTS Systems said.
Share price decline
The announcement follows a decline in MTS Systems Corp.’s share price of 73% since January 2017.
Chaired by David J. Anderson
MTS Systems Corp. is chaired by David J. Anderson.
In the position of CEO since 2012
Jeff Graves became CEO of the Company in 2012.
Graves has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company since May 2012.
He was previously President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of C&D Technologies, Inc. (a manufacturer, marketer and distributer of electrical power storage systems for the standby power storage market) from July 2005 until May 2012.
He also held various executive positions at Kemet Electronics Corporation from 2001 to 2005, including Chief Executive Officer; various leadership positions with General Electric Company’s Power Systems Division and Corporate Research & Development Center from 1995 to 2001; and prior to 1995, various positions of increasing responsibility at Rockwell International Corporation and Howmet Corporation.
Graves has served as a director of Hexcel Corporation since 2007 and as a director of Faro Technologies since December 2017.
He previously served as a director of Teleflex Incorporated from 2007 through December 2017.
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 MTS Systems and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 20.2020 ($).