LABJ FORUM – Passing On

The sudden death of McDonald’s Corp. Chief Executive Jim Cantalupo last week had a lot of executives thinking about plans for keeping their business running in the event of their untimely death. So the Business Journal asked:

Does your company have a plan of succession for its top executive?

Donald Johnson

President and Chief Executive

American Business Bank

Yes we do. We have a group of people that would interchange titles instantly and then would allow us to re-evaluate inside and outside people to make sure we made the right decision, very similar to what (McDonalds) did. In other words, if something were to happen to the chairman, I’m president and CEO, I would probably take chairman and CEO titles with “interim” until we filled the roles or brought in an outside director.

Gary Maier

President

Maier & Co.

I’m personally prepared, with a will and things for my family. With the company, I need to be better prepared. We don’t have one. When you’re a public company with thousands of people, it’s more important.

Scott Montgomery

President and Chief Executive

National Mercantile Bancorp

Yes. We have several senior officers that would serve either as the interim chief executive officer should I get run over by a bus. And the board would then fill the position. They’d either go outside or have one of the internal candidates.”

Jose Collazo

Chairman, Chief Executive and President

Infonet Services Corp.

Infonet is a functional organization with distributed responsibilities worldwide. It has and has had a succession plan for the CEO and other top executives that is briefed to the board each year.

Mark Vidergauz

Managing director and Chief Executive

Sage Group

I feel pretty well and have no plans of going anywhere. We do actually have a plan that we worked out with our board when we first started the company. It’s a combination of having both executives at the firm take over. It came about when we were looking at various life insurance policies. Our board members are very sophisticated and they said we should probably think the idea of succession through and have a plan in place.

Jim McGinty

Chief Financial Officer

Hot Topic Inc.

We certainly talk about those things and have plans in place. Our board and senior management team hold an annual human resources review every year and succession is a fixed item on the agenda. The meeting is dedicated to discussing that and other human resource issues.

Colby Haines

Owner

Colby Communications Corp.

In the long run the company would be dissolved. I chose a businessperson that I know to step in to resolve any outstanding commitments. She is familiar with my accounts and also knowledgeable about how to access my computers. She would handle all of the accounting and notify everyone that I passed away. There would be a list of recommended firms for them to choose from. My clients would be taken care of.