After just 18 months on the job, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) chief financial officer Pete Bocian will be leaving the company to become the chief administrative officer at Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ). Troy Alstead will be taking over as CFO. He has been with the company since 1992, most recently as senior vice president of Global Finance.Starbucks spokesmen have said that Bocian was not asked to leave, and we might as well take them at their word. But the question is why did Mr. Bocian leave the company with its stock trading now at less than half its value than when he took the reins, especially given the company's professed optimism about its turnaround?
This resignation may not be the canary in the coalmine of much larger problems that resignations in the executive suite often are, but it doesn't point to huge confidence on Mr. Bocian's part about the company's turnaround efforts.
His departure probably isn't a good enough reason to sell the stock, but it should give investors pause.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-07-2008 @ 2:10PM
RICH BRULATO said...
Maybe now that gas is down from $4.00 a gallon people will go back to paying $4.00 for a latte....glad I dumped my stock!!!!
11-07-2008 @ 2:27PM
andyg8180 said...
Well, at least his last order of biz was giving away FREE COFFEE!! I definitely got my cup for voting!
Nice comment Rich, but its too true... People cant pay for coffee if they cant pay for gas...