• After almost 11 years in the position
• Praise, thanks and good wishes for Stark
• Search for a successor
• Stark said 88 words

(exechange) — White Plains, New York State, May 1, 2023 — Juergen Stark, chief executive of Turtle Beach, leaves his position. As announced by Turtle Beach Corp. in a news release on Monday, May 1, 2023, Juergen Stark leaves his post as chief executive officer at the gaming headset and audio accessory brand, after almost 11 years in the role, effective June 30, 2023.

The average tenure of CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months was 7.7 years. Around 27% of departing CEOs left their posts after more than 10 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.

Turtle Beach will undertake a search for a successor.

“In the best interest of its shareholders”

Turtle Beach did not give an explicit reason for Juergen Stark’s departure from the CEO post. Turtle Beach stated: “Turtle Beach Corporation … today announced that its Board of Directors … has unanimously taken a series of actions consistent with its commitment to acting in the best interest of its shareholders and ensuring best-in-class governance practices. These actions are aligned with shareholder feedback and include:

• Implementation of a CEO succession plan, effective June 30, 2023;
• Election of a new independent Chairman and separation of CEO and Chairman roles going forward;
• Decision by two long tenured directors, Mr. Stark and Mr. Keitel, to not stand for re-election at 2023 Annual Stockholder Meeting;
• Reorganization of Board Committees, including Committee Chairs.”

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 (16.6%) and the statement that the time was right for a change (10.5%), according to exechange data. Other motives given for leadership changes included the outgoing CEO’s wish to pursue other opportunities (6.4% of cases), personal reasons (4.1%) 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 (1%) and career change (0.6%). Sometimes, more than one reason was given. In 27.7% of cases, no reason was given.

Precise information regarding Juergen Stark’s future plans was not immediately available.

“Step down”

Turtle Beach said: “Juergen Stark, who has served as CEO since 2012 and Chairman since 2020, has informed the Board of his intention to step down from both roles. Mr. Stark will step down from his role as Chairman, effective immediately, and as CEO, effective June 30, 2023.”

Share price decline since May 2021

The announcement follows a decline in Turtle Beach Corp.’s share price of 59% since May 2021.

In the position of CEO since 2012

Juergen Stark became CEO of the Company in 2012.

Juergen Stark joined Turtle Beach in September 2012 as CEO, president, and a board director, and was named chairman of the Board in January 2020.

From August 2010 to June 2012, Stark was the COO for Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc.’s multi-billion-dollar mobile devices business.

Prior to that role, he ran multiple hardware and software businesses in the consumer, enterprise, and government sectors for Motorola.

Earlier in his career, he was CEO of Centerpost Corporation, a technology company he co-founded in 2000.

88 words by Juergen Stark

In the news release announcing his departure as CEO of Turtle Beach Corp., Juergen Stark received praise, thanks and good wishes.

In announcing his departure, Juergen Stark said 88 words.

“Now is the right time”

Juergen Stark stated: “It has been an honor to lead Turtle Beach through a comprehensive transformation and work alongside such an incredibly talented team. Turtle Beach is executing a clearly defined strategy, and both the Board and I believe that now is the right time to initiate this transition of leadership responsibilities. The Company has the most exciting product plans for the next 18 months that we’ve had in my ten years here and that, combined with the excellent leadership team, positions the Company well for continued success and value creation.”

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.

40% 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 314 CEO departures in the Russell 3000 Index evaluated over the past 12 months (May 1, 2022, to April 30, 2023), the average Push-out Score was 6.2, according to exechange data. References to conduct issues, disagreements and irregularities lead to the highest Push-out Scores. When performance issues, pursuit of other opportunities or time with family were cited as departure reasons, the average Push-out Scores were also significantly elevated.

Around 40% 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, two in five departing CEOs were forced out or fired.

Push-out Score for Juergen Stark’s move determined

The Push-out Score regarding Juergen Stark’s move is explained point by point in the exechange report.

exechange reached out to Turtle Beach and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.

Read the full story in the exechange report 19.2023 ($).