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The Morning Ledger: America’s Longest-Serving CFO Is Stepping Down
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Jeff Julien has been CFO of Raymond James Financial for more than three decades. PHOTO: BOB CROSLIN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Hello. Jeff Julien has had an enviable 32-year run as finance chief at brokerage Raymond James Financial Inc., but he’s ending his tenure at the end of the year.
Been there, done that. Mr. Julien joined the St. Petersburg, Fla. company in 1983 after working as a certified public accountant for Price Waterhouse. He took over as CFO in April 1987, before Wall Street suffered its historic crash known as Black Monday, and subsequently helped steer the firm through the ebbs and flows of the market, such as the dotcom boom and bust, the Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis.
[Continued below…]
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Long run. Mr. Julien’s tenure as finance chief is longer than any other CFO at the 673 biggest U.S. companies—a group that includes all companies in the S&P 500 and Fortune 500—according to Crist|Kolder Associates, an executive recruitment firm. CFOs tend to stay in their position for an average of 5.1 years, according to the recruiter’s 2018 Volatility Report. They may move to another company, or to another role, such as chief executive.
Before it was cool. Today’s CFOs are often highly involved in strategy and operations, a change from their historic role as top-level accountants. Mr. Julien wore many hats long before it was in vogue, said Devin Ryan, an analyst at JMP Securities LLC who has followed the company for over a decade. “He’s not just a behind-the-scenes, numbers CFO,” he said. “He’s publicly facing, he’s involved in strategy and in a number of different areas of operations of the firm and also communicating with investors.”
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The Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company sells drivetrain products for combustion, hybrid and electric vehicles, exposing it to the ups and downs in global car sales. Mr. Nowlan, who joins BorgWarner on April 1, will have to deliver on the CEO’s stated plan to reduce costs to “adapt to the current environment,” CFO Journal’s Nina Trentmann reports.
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The U.S. Federal Reserve is due to release its monetary policy statement at 2 p.m. ET. Central bank officials will also update their projections for the path U.S. benchmark interest rates. The WSJ's Nick Timiaros has five things to watch.
General Mills Inc., Worthington Industries Inc., Herman Miller Inc., Micron Technology Inc. and Guess Inc. are scheduled to release earnings today.
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Google's logo is seen at its European headquarters in Brussels. The search giant has contended with charges of anticompetitive behavior in Europe. PHOTO: VIRGINIA MAYO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit plans to ask all Android smartphone users in Europe whether they want to switch to competing search engines or web browsers, one of two new concessions the search giant is offering to stave off complaints—and potential fines—from European Union antitrust regulators.
Facebook Inc.’s Instagram is going deeper into the e-commerce business, for the first time selling shoppers products that they see on the photo-heavy social network’s feeds.
Walt Disney Co. closed its $71.3 billion acquisition of entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox, combining some of Hollywood’s best-known studios, characters and franchises as media companies look to get bigger to better compete in a world where shows and movies are increasingly streamed.
Norsk Hydro AS suffered an extensive cyberattack on Tuesday, as the Norwegian aluminum giant becomes the latest victim of hackers that have targeted companies across Europe and the U.S.
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA plans to name Marty Barrington, the former chairman and chief executive of Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc., as its new chairman, elevating him from his current seat on the brewer’s board.
Tim Armstrong, the former leader of AOL, is walking away with more than $60 million as he leaves Verizon Communication Inc., which recently wrote down half the value of the internet business he led.
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U.S. audit firms must soon begin filing expanded auditor’s reports that will tell investors more about the issues they find when reviewing a company’s books. PHOTO: JACK TAYLOR/GETTY IMAGES
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U.S. auditors are gearing up to revamp and expand the yearly letter in which they bless a company’s financial statements. Starting later this year, those audit reports must tell investors more about what an auditor found most difficult or challenging when scrutinizing a company’s books.
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A jury found that a man developed cancer from exposure to Roundup weedkiller he used in his yard, in the second case to go to trial over the alleged harms of the popular Bayer AG product.
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The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned gold-mining company and the company’s president.
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With the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration facing mounting scrutiny domestically and overseas, the White House is expected to announce the nomination of Steve Dickson, a former senior Delta Air Lines Inc. official, as permanent head of the agency.
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A group of music publishers representing the songwriters of hits from Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga and others are suing Peloton Interactive Inc. for copyright infringement, alleging the maker of video-streaming stationary exercise bikes used musical works without permission.
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Germany plans to pass legislation to create a state-owned fund to protect key companies from takeovers by foreign firms, Reuters reports.
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U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer speaks at the White House in Washington in February. PHOTO: ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
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Top U.S. and China negotiators are planning new rounds of talks starting next week to end a trade dispute between the two nations that has rocked markets globally.
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The U.K. government won’t ask the European Union for a long Brexit delay, a British government official said Wednesday, suggesting that any request would likely be for an extension of months rather than upward of a year.
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Bulletproof 360 Inc., the Seattle-based privately held food and content company, named Cameron Kinloch its chief financial officer.
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Ms. Kinloch, who joined Bulletproof in February, was most recently senior vice president, finance of Ripple Foods, the plant-based beverage company, from November 2017 to February 2019. Before that, she was vice president of finance at software and cryptocurrency company Ripple from 2016 to 2017. Compensation details weren't available.
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