14 DAY TRIAL // Seagate, the world’s leading hard disk drive maker, recently announced, in a surprising move, that its Board of Directors had unanimously appointed Stephen J. Luczo as the company’s new president and chief executive officer. Mr. Luczo is expected to continue to serve his previous post as chairman of the Board of Directors. With the announcement, Seagate is basically replacing William D. Watkins with Stephen J. Luczon, who previously occupied the chief executive officer position, between July 1998 and July 2004.
“We are fortunate to have a leader of Steve’s vision and experience,” said Lydia M. Marshall, lead independent director and chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. “Steve’s significant understanding of Seagate’s business and technology, and the customer and employee relationships that he built over his 15 year career at Seagate make Steve the ideal person to lead our Company at this time.”
The CEO of Seagate has had some worth-mentioning experience, as this isn’t Mr. Luczo’s first encounter with this job. Between 1998 and 2008, he led Seagate and managed to guide the storage company through some difficult restructuring.
“Seagate is a strong company and we are making measurable progress toward regaining our longstanding product leadership position across all markets. I look forward to working closely with Seagate’s talented employees around the world to build upon our success and accelerate the improvements we are making in our business,” declared Mr. Luczo.
He and Mr. Watkins are going to continue collaborating, in order to ensue a better and faster transition and discuss what role and if Mr. Watkins is going to remain with the storage company.
Seagate has also replaced its chief operating officer, a position that, up until now, has been occupied by Dave Wickersham, and which is now held by Robert Whitemore, who is the current Seagate executive VP and chief technology officer.
Seagate has recently warned its investors that its second fiscal quarter might bring about $500 million less than previously expected. Also, the company's stock price has declined more than 80 percent in the last year, with the manufacturer struggling to keep up with its competitors, such as Western Digital. In addition, the company has recently been rumored to be planning a 10 percent reduction of its U.S. workforce.