- After around 25 years in the position
- Praise and good wishes for Peltz
- Matthew Klein taking over
(exechange) — South Plainfield, New Jersey, March 24, 2023 — Stuart Peltz, chief executive of PTC Therapeutics, leaves his position. As announced by PTC Therapeutics Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Friday, March 24, 2023, Stuart W. Peltz has left his post as chief executive officer at the biopharmaceutical company, after around 25 years in the role, effective March 22, 2023.
It is the end of an era.
The average tenure of CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months was 8 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.
Stuart Peltz’s duties as CEO will be taken over by Matthew B. Klein, most recently Chief Operating Officer at PTC Therapeutics Inc.
No reason given
In the announcement, PTC Therapeutics did not explicitly explain the reason for the move.
The top three reasons cited in corporate announcements for CEO departures over the past 12 months are performance issues (28.1% of cases), implementation of a planned succession (16.6%) and the statement that the time was right for a change (9.7%), according to exechange data. Other motives given for leadership changes included the outgoing CEO’s wish to pursue other opportunities (5.6% of cases), personal reasons (3.8%) and conduct issues (2.2%). Rather rarely stated reasons are health problems (1.6% of cases), disagreement (1.3%), death (1.3%), the desire for more time with family (0.9%) and career change (0.6%). Sometimes, more than one reason was given. In 28.4% of cases, no reason was given.
Precise information regarding Stuart Peltz’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Stepping down/retire”
PTC Therapeutics said: “Stuart Peltz, Ph.D., founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PTC Therapeutics announced today that he is stepping down after 25 years.”
PTC Therapeutics further said: “Dr. Klein succeeds Dr. Stuart W. Peltz, who provided the Board with notice on March 22, 2023 of his decision to retire as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board, in each case, effective as of March 22, 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 increase since March 2018
The announcement follows an increase in PTC Therapeutics Inc.’s share price of 88% since March 2018.
In the position of CEO since 1998
Stuart Peltz became CEO of the Company in 1998.
Peltz will serve as a Senior Consultant to the Company and join its Scientific Advisory Board following his retirement.
Peltz is a co-founder of PTC Therapeutics, Inc., and has served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Company’s Board since the Company’s inception in 1998.
Peltz is a recognized scientific leader in RNA biology in the area of post-transcriptional control processes involving mRNA turnover and translation, with more than 30 years of research and over 100 publications in this area.
Prior to founding PTC, Peltz was a Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University.
Peltz serves as a member of the BioNJ Board of Trustees and previously served as its Chairman from 2014 to 2016.
Peltz has received a number of business and scientific awards, including election as a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science in 2010, recipient of the Sol J. Barer Award for Vision Innovation and Leadership in 2014 and recognition as PharmaVoice’s 100 Most Inspiring People in 2009.
He has served as a member of the board of directors for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and on BIO’s Emerging Companies Section Governing Board.
Peltz received a Ph.D. from the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin.
No statement by Stuart Peltz
In the news release announcing his departure as CEO of PTC Therapeutics Inc., Stuart Peltz received praise and good wishes.
The announcement of his departure as CEO does not include a statement by Stuart Peltz.
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 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, according to exechange data.
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 320 CEO departures in the Russell 3000 Index evaluated over the past 12 months (March 24, 2022, to March 23, 2023), the average Push-out Score was 6.1, 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 Stuart Peltz’s move determined
The Push-out Score regarding Stuart Peltz’s move is explained point by point in the exechange report.
exechange reached out to PTC Therapeutics and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 13.2023 ($).