- After about a year in the position
- Praise, thanks and good wishes for Mellor
- Josh James taking over
- Mellor said 72 words
(exechange) — Silicon Slopes, Utah, March 6, 2023 — John Mellor, chief executive of Domo, leaves his position. As announced by Domo Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Monday, March 6, 2023, John Mellor has left his post as chief executive officer at the cloud software company after about a year in the role, effective March 3, 2023.
The average tenure of CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months was 8.4 years. Around 12% of departing CEOs left their posts within two 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.
John Mellor’s duties as CEO will be taken over by Joshua G. (Josh) James, a former Chief Executive Officer at Domo Inc.
John Mellor’s move coincides with a management shake-up also involving the positions of Chief Financial Officer; and Chief Revenue Officer.
“True entrepreneurial spirit”
Domo did not give an explicit reason for John Mellor’s departure from the CEO post. Carine Clark, Chair of the Board, stated: “Josh brings a true entrepreneurial spirit to the company and we are confident that under his leadership, Domo is in very capable hands.”
The top three reasons cited in corporate announcements for CEO departures over the past 12 months are performance issues (25.8% of cases), implementation of a planned succession (17.3%) and the statement that the time was right for a change (9.4%), according to exechange data. Other motives given for leadership changes included the outgoing CEO’s wish to pursue other opportunities (5.8% of cases), personal reasons (3.6%) and conduct issues (2.1%). Rather rarely stated reasons are career change (2.1% of cases), health problems (1.5%), disagreement (1.2%), the desire for more time with family (0.9%) and death (0.9%). Sometimes, more than one reason was given. In 29.2% of cases, no reason was given.
Precise information regarding John Mellor’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Stepped down/resigned”
Domo said: “John Mellor has stepped down as Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the company after nearly four years with Domo. He will be available to support the company during this transition period, as needed.”
Domo further said: “On March 3, 2023, John Mellor resigned as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Company’s board of directors, effective March 3, 2023.”
Generally, resignations are seen as formally voluntary departures. Still, CEOs may also be pressured to resign. In fact, 77% of the time “resign” was used in CEO departure announcements over the past 12 months, the departing chief executives received Push-out Scores above the critical threshold of 5, indicating elevated pressure.
“No disagreements”
Domo stated, regarding the change: “There were no disagreements between Mr. Mellor and the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices which resulted in Mr. Mellor’s resignation.”
Share price decline since March 2022
The announcement follows a decline in Domo Inc.’s share price of 64% since March 2022. March 2022 is the month in which Mellor’s tenure as CEO began.
In the position of CEO since 2022
John Mellor became CEO of the Company in 2022.
John Mellor has served as the Company’s chief executive officer and a member of the Company’s board of directors since March 2022.
Mellor has previously served as the Company’s chief strategy officer from April 2019 to February 2022.
Prior to joining Domo, Mellor held various roles at Adobe, including vice president of strategy and business operations from January 2018 to April 2019 and vice president of strategy, alliances and marketing from October 2009 to January 2018.
Mellor joined Adobe through its acquisition of Omniture, where he served as executive vice president of strategy and business development for six years.
Mellor holds both a B.S. in mechanical engineering and an M.B.A. from Brigham Young University.
At the time of John Mellor’s appointment as Chief Executive Officer at Domo, John Mellor had stated: “I am extremely optimistic about our future and the horsepower of the entire Domo team. Digital transformation remains a massive opportunity and the outlook remains strong for years to come. We are well positioned to help customers improve the millions of decisions and processes throughout their organizations with data. Speed and scale are critical, and that’s where we win. We’ll continue to leverage our technological advantages and customer-centric focus to drive our growth.”
At the time of John Mellor’s appointment as Chief Executive Officer at Domo, Josh James had stated: “We recruited John Mellor to the company nearly three years ago because of his leadership attributes and deep industry experience. I’m very excited for Domo’s future under his stewardship. I have an aligned and substantial interest in Domo doing well, and I’ll continue to be its biggest cheerleader. I look forward to seeing the next generation of management take Domo’s performance to the next level.”
72 words by John Mellor
In the news release announcing his departure as CEO of Domo Inc., John Mellor received praise, thanks and good wishes.
In announcing the leadership change, John Mellor said 72 words.
“It has been an honor”
John Mellor stated: “It has been an honor and a privilege to be part of the Domo team for nearly four years and to lead as CEO for the past year. Domo has a highly engaged, talented team that operates with incredible commitment and integrity. The team’s dedication to our customers is among the many reasons that I am confident Domo will continue to be a market disruptor as we bring innovative solutions to customers.”
Over the past 12 months, 25% 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 110 words. The longest statement was 510 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.
37% 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 329 CEO departures in the Russell 3000 Index evaluated over the past 12 months (March 6, 2022, to March 5, 2023), the average Push-out Score was 5.9, according to exechange data. References to conduct issues, disagreements and irregularities lead to the highest Push-out Scores. When performance issues, time with family or other opportunities were cited as departure reasons, the average Push-out Scores were also significantly elevated.
Around 37% 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.
Push-out Score for John Mellor’s move determined
The Push-out Score regarding John Mellor’s move is explained point by point in the exechange report.
exechange reached out to Domo and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 11.2023 ($).