- After about six years in the position
- Praise and thanks for Gomez
- Search for a successor
- Gomez said 81 words
(exechange) — New York, January 17, 2023 — This news came shortly after Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Phil Gomez, chief executive of Siga, is set to leave his position. As announced by Siga Technologies Inc. in a news release on Tuesday, January 17, 2023, Phillip L. (Phil) Gomez will leave his post as chief executive officer at the commercial-stage pharmaceutical company, after about six years in the role, effective in 2023.
The average tenure of CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months was 8.3 years. This is according to data collected by CEO-exit research firm exechange.
exechange tracks CEO departures at the 3,000 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S., examines the reasons CEOs leave and determines the Push‑out Score™, a measure of pressure on departing chief executives on a scale of 0 to 10.
Siga will undertake a search for a successor.
“This is the ideal time”
Phil Gomez’s planned departure from the CEO post is explained as follows. Gomez stated: “As we plan for new opportunities in the years ahead, I believe that this is the ideal time to bring in new leadership that can continue our momentum.”
The top three reasons cited in corporate announcements for CEO departures over the past 12 months are performance issues (26.8% of cases), implementation of a planned succession (16.2%) and the statement that the time was right for a change (8.6%), according to exechange data. Other motives given for leadership changes included the outgoing CEO’s wish to pursue other opportunities (5.9% of cases), personal reasons (2.9%) and conduct issues (2.4%). Rather rarely stated reasons are health problems (2.1% of cases), career change (2.1%), death (0.9%), the desire for more time with family (0.6%) and disagreement (0.6%). Sometimes, more than one reason was given. In 31% of cases, no reason was given.
Precise information regarding Phil Gomez’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Retire”
Siga said: “Phil Gomez, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Siga, has announced his intention to retire as CEO in 2023.”
Generally, retirements are seen as formally voluntary departures. Still, CEOs may also be pressured to accelerate their retirement plans. In fact, 34% of the time “retire” was used in CEO departure announcements over the past 12 months, the departing chief executive received a Push-out Score above the critical threshold of 5, indicating elevated pressure.
Companies often provide less precise information in their corporate announcements than in regulatory filings, which are sometimes published with a considerable delay and therefore cannot always be included in the exechange analysis. In the present case, a regulatory filing regarding Phil Gomez’s move was not available at the time of the analysis.
Share price decline since August 2022
The announcement follows a decline in Siga Technologies Inc.’s share price of 51% since August 2022.
In the position of CEO since 2016
Phil Gomez became CEO of the Company in 2016.
Phillip L. Gomez began serving as Chief Executive Officer on October 13, 2016 and was appointed as a director on December 6, 2016.
Prior to joining Siga, Gomez was a Principal in the Pharma & Life Sciences Management Consulting Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (“PwC”) from 2011 until 2016.
At PwC, and at PRTM Management Consultants (“PRTM”), where he was a Director from 2007-2011 prior its acquisition by PwC, Gomez led the team that focused on the development and execution of business strategies for leading pharmaceutical companies, governmental agencies, academic medical centers, and foundations with respect to product development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical products.
Gomez joined PRTM from the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH, where he worked from 2001 – 2007 and established the Vaccine Production Program, which manufactured vaccines for clinical trials against HIV, SARS, Ebola, West Nile Virus and Influenza.
Prior to NIH, Gomez spent more than nine years in the pharmaceutical industry at Abbott Laboratories, Sanofi Pasteur, and Baxter Healthcare Corporation in positions of increasing responsibility, leading process/product development initiatives and project teams for the development of multiple biologic products.
Gomez holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College, a Master of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy in chemical engineering from Lehigh University, and a Master of Business Administration from the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.
81 words by Phil Gomez
In the news release announcing his departure as CEO of Siga Technologies Inc., Phil Gomez received praise and thanks.
In the announcement of the leadership change, Phil Gomez said 81 words.
“New opportunities in the years ahead”
Phil Gomez stated: “Serving as CEO of Siga since 2016 has been a profoundly rewarding professional experience as we have taken a range of steps to strengthen and expand operations and worked diligently to respond to the global monkeypox outbreak. As we plan for new opportunities in the years ahead, I believe that this is the ideal time to bring in new leadership that can continue our momentum. I look forward to working with the Board to effect a smooth leadership transition in 2023.”
Over the past 12 months, 26% of all outgoing CEOs remained silent in the departure announcement, according to data compiled by exechange. Departing CEOs who did make a statement said an average of 108 words. The longest statement was 382 words. The shortest statement was 23 words. Leadership transitions in which departing CEOs provide conspicuously short, excessively long or no explanations for their move are statistically associated with elevated pressure and show an increased incidence of Push-out Scores above the critical threshold of 5.
34% of CEOs are forced out or fired
When CEO departures are announced, exechange determines the Push-out Score on a scale of 0 to 10 to assess how likely it is that the chief executive was pushed out or felt pressure to leave the position, with 0 being most likely a voluntary move and 10 being most likely a forced exit. Anything over a 5 indicates that there are valid reasons to believe an executive may have been pushed out.
Of the 339 CEO departures in the Russell 3000 Index evaluated over the past 12 months (January 17, 2022, to January 16, 2023), the average Push-out Score was 5.7, according to exechange data. References to conduct issues, disagreements and irregularities lead to the highest Push-out Scores. When time with family, performance issues or other opportunities were cited as departure reasons, the average Push-out Scores were also significantly elevated.
Around 34% of the CEO departure events from the past 12 months received Push-out Scores of 8 or higher.
In other words, in the past 12 months, one in three departing CEOs were forced out or fired.
Pressure in the health care sector well above the critical threshold
Some industries are under generally higher pressure than others, and CEOs are feeling the strain. In the past 12 months, the consumer staples, communication and health care sectors showed the highest average Push-out Scores. By contrast, pressure on CEOs was lowest in the real estate, utilities and financials sectors, as measured by average Push-out Scores.
In the health care sector, which includes Siga Technologies Inc., the average Push-out Score over the past 12 months was 6.9, which is well above the critical threshold of 5.
In the health care sector, 28 exiting CEOs received Push-out Scores of 8 or higher over the past 12 months, indicating that they were most likely forced out or faced strong pressure to step down.
Push-out Score for Phil Gomez’s move determined
The Push-out Score regarding Phil Gomez’s move is explained point by point in the exechange report.
exechange reached out to Siga and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 4.2023 ($).