- Push-out Score determined
- After about six years in the position
- Search for a successor
- Wagenhals kept it short and said 41 words
(exechange) — Scottsdale, Arizona, November 7, 2022 — Fred Wagenhals, chief executive of Ammo, is set to leave his position. As announced by Ammo Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Monday, November 7, 2022, Fred W. Wagenhals will leave his post as chief executive officer at the producer of ammunition and components, after about six years in the role, effective upon the selection of a new CEO candidate.
Ammo stated: “The Board will immediately form a new committee tasked with planning for CEO succession with the assistance of a nationally recognized search firm.”
Furthermore, the Company will appoint Christos Tsentas and Wayne Walker to the Ammo Board of Directors.
Ammo is the owner of GunBroker.com, an online marketplace serving the firearms and shooting sports industries, and a vertically integrated producer of ammunition and components. The company also announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with Steven Urvan and Susan Lokey (collectively, the “Urvan Group”).
“Identify opportunities to drive profitable growth”
Ammo did not give an explicit reason for Fred Wagenhals’s departure from the CEO post. Steven Urvan, who has been a director and employee of the company since April 2021, said: “As a large shareholder, Board member and founder of GunBroker.com, I look forward to Ammo’s future, and believe the addition of Messrs. Tsentas and Walker as directors will help strengthen the Board and propel the Company forward. I see a bright future for Ammo and look forward to working with my fellow Board members to identify opportunities to drive profitable growth.”
Precise information regarding Fred Wagenhals’s future plans was not immediately available.
Ammo said: “Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the Board will immediately form a new committee of the Board charged with planning the succession of Fred Wagenhals as Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of the Company with the assistance of a nationally recognized search firm.”
Ammo further said: “Upon the CEO Succession Committee’s selection of a new CEO candidate, and subject to the Board’s fiduciary duties under applicable law, the Board will promptly appoint the selected candidate as the new CEO.”
Share price decline since November 2021
The announcement follows a decline in Ammo Inc.’s share price of 51% since November 2021.
In the position of CEO since 2016
Fred Wagenhals became CEO of the Company in 2016.
Fred W. Wagenhals has been the Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer of the Company since December 2016.
Wagenhals was a private investor from August 2005 until December 2016.
Wagenhals served as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Action Performance Companies, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed marketer and distributor of licensed motorsports merchandise, from November 1993; Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer from May 1992 until September 1993; and President from July 1993 until September 1993.
Action-Performance Companies, Inc. was sold in August 2005 to International Speedway Corp. and Speedway Motorsports.
Wagenhals is a member of the Die-Cast Hall of Fame; was named an Entrepreneur of the Year for the Retail/Wholesale category by the Center for Entrepreneurial leadership Inc.; and received the Anheuser-Bush Entrepreneur in Residence Award at the University of Arizona College of Business and Public Administration.
Push-out Score determined
The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding Fred Wagenhals’s move on a scale of 0 to 10.
exechange reached out to Ammo and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 46.2022 ($).