Portfolio.com featured its picks for the ten dumbest moves by CEOs in 2007. The list shows a nice range and depth of stupidity on the part of CEOs -- and it hasn't gone unnoticed that there are no women on this list of dummies. Here are their picks and my two cents:
- John Mackey, Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFMI) -- He displayed his brilliance by posting on message boards under the screen name Rahodeb, hyping Whole Foods while not letting people know exactly who it was that was hyping the company. (Seems reminiscent of Patrick Byrne of Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK).) The company ended up banning executives from participating on any message boards.
- Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank -- Getting his girlfriend at the bank a transfer and a raise. Need we say more?
- Steve Jobs, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) -- Ticking off early adopters by slashing $200 off the original price of the $600 iPhone shortly after its debut. Nothing like causing your loyal customers to think twice before they run right out to be the first to buy Apple's next new gadget.
- Chris Albrecht, HBO -- An alleged assault of his girlfriend in Las Vegas ended in his arrest. And then came the news that he did something similar in the early 1990s. Not the kind of headlines you want from your CEO.
- Greg Reyes, Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) -- Stock option backdating costs the company a $7 million fine. He was found guilty of 10 fraud-related counts. (But Reyes certainly isn't the only executive in America involved in option backdating.)
- Klaus Kleinfeld, Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) -- Corruption thrived at Siemens with Kleinfeld at the helm.
- John Browne, BP (NYSE: BP) -- A messy love affair with a man who was given confidential corporate information led to Browne's demise. He lied about the affair and misused company funds to top things off. Ouch.
- James Cayne, Bear Steams (NYSE: BSC) -- Frolicking on the golf course while major financial issues were exploding at the office. (Hint: Work first, then play.)
- Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone (NYSE: BX) -- A $3 million birthday party for himself got him on this list . . . although who really cares? Let the guy waste his money on a party if he wants to.
- David Neeleman, JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBLU) -- Some say he stayed too long at the head of JetBlue, a company struggling to make a comeback.
All in all, not a bad list. I could think of a few more, but maybe we'll wait until 2008 and see if they turn up on next year's list.
Forensic accountant Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations through her company, Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting and wrote Essentials of Corporate Fraud, out in March 2008.
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