- After around 20 years in the position
- Praise, thanks and good wishes for Guo
- Edward Durkin taking over temporarily
- Search for a successor
- Guo said 117 words
(exechange) — Andover, Massachusetts, March 14, 2023 — Jerry Guo, chief executive of Casa, leaves his position. As announced by Casa Systems Inc. in a news release on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, Jerry Guo leaves his post as chief executive officer at the provider of broadband technology products, after around 20 years in the role, effective March 17, 2023.
It is the end of an era.
The average tenure of CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months was 8.1 years. Around 8% of departing CEOs left their posts after more than 20 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.
Casa will undertake a search for a successor.
Jerry Guo’s duties as CEO will be taken over temporarily by Edward Durkin, most recently Chief Financial Officer at Casa Systems Inc., as Interim Chief Executive Officer.
“Prioritize a return to growth and profitability”
Casa did not give an explicit reason for Jerry Guo’s departure from the CEO post. Bruce Evans, Chairman of the Board, stated: “As we move forward, we will be focused on delivering consistent, annual top line revenue growth, with improved gross and net margins. We believe 2023 will be an important first year of this new era for Casa Systems as we continue to deliver our innovative solutions to market, focus deeply on the needs of our global customers, prioritize a return to growth and profitability, and address our Term Loan B debt facility before its contractual maturity in late December 2023.”
The top three reasons cited in corporate announcements for CEO departures over the past 12 months are performance issues (26.9% of cases), implementation of a planned succession (16.8%) and the statement that the time was right for a change (9.5%), according to exechange data. Other motives given for leadership changes included the outgoing CEO’s wish to pursue other opportunities (5.5% of cases), personal reasons (3.7%) and conduct issues (2.1%). Rather rarely stated reasons are career change (2.1% of cases), health problems (1.5%), disagreement (1.2%), death (1.2%) and the desire for more time with family (0.9%). Sometimes, more than one reason was given. In 28.4% of cases, no reason was given.
Precise information regarding Jerry Guo’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Retiring”
Casa said: “Jerry Guo will be retiring as CEO and President effective March 17, 2023.”
Generally, retirements are seen as formally voluntary departures. Still, CEOs may also be pressured to accelerate their retirement plans. In fact, 35% of the time “retire” 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.
Share price decline since March 2018
The announcement follows a decline in Casa Systems Inc.’s share price of 84% since March 2018.
In the position of CEO since 2003
Jerry Guo became CEO of the Company in 2003.
He will remain as an active member of the Casa Systems’ Board of Directors.
Jerry Guo, the founder of the Company, has served as the Company’s president, chief executive officer and as the chairman of the Company’s board of directors since the Company’s founding in 2003.
Prior to founding the Company, Guo served as the vice president of broadband at River Delta Networks, which was acquired by Motorola in 2001.
Prior to that, Guo was a research scientist at Bell Laboratories’ research division.
Guo holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.S. in optical instruments from the Department of Precision Instruments at Tsinghua University.
117 words by Jerry Guo
In the news release announcing his departure as CEO of Casa Systems Inc., Jerry Guo received praise, thanks and good wishes.
In announcing the leadership change, Jerry Guo said 117 words.
“Heavy heart”
Jerry Guo stated: “It is with a heavy heart that I will be saying goodbye to daily interactions with my colleagues at Casa Systems, my comrades-in-arms, in good times and tough times. It has been a privilege to have worked with my co-founders and co-workers over the last 20 years. I want to thank my tremendously talented colleagues for their dedication, ingenuity, and perseverance. I have strong confidence that the market-leading Casa technologies and solutions related to cloud-native software and innovative hardware which we have built will help transform the telecom industry like we have envisioned. I am excited about the future of Casa Systems, and look forward to assisting the Company in this important next chapter of Casa’s transformation.”
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 109 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.
38% 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 327 CEO departures in the Russell 3000 Index evaluated over the past 12 months (March 14, 2022, to March 13, 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 personal reasons were cited as departure reasons, the average Push-out Scores were also significantly elevated.
Around 38% 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, three in eight departing CEOs were forced out or fired.
Push-out Score for Jerry Guo’s move determined
The Push-out Score regarding Jerry Guo’s move is explained point by point in the exechange report.
exechange reached out to Casa and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 12.2023 ($).