Hundreds of firms are listed on America’s inventory exchanges, and there are 1000’s extra which can be privately held and have the potential to go public. The crowded trendy enterprise panorama is ripe for fraud, misconduct, and unhealthy choices, and when these points turn out to be public, CEOs are sometimes the primary to take the autumn.
Excessive-profile CEOs have come underneath hearth numerous occasions for a wide range of causes. Company fraud, monetary or moral misconduct, poor efficiency, and unhealthy enterprise choices are a few of the commonest.
Typically, CEOs are forcibly dismissed from their roles for egregious conduct, whereas in different circumstances, they’re politely requested to step down by members of an organization’s board of administrators.
5 well-known CEOs who had been ousted from their firms
Listed below are 5 CEOs who had been famously ousted (or politely inspired to step down) from the chief government position following company drama.
Carlos Ghosn stepped down as CEO of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance in 2018.
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Carlos Ghosn (former CEO of Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance)
Ghosn was CEO of the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance, which was shaped by Renault’s buy of a minority stake in Nissan. Ghosn immediately oversaw Nissan Motor, the place he served as chairman, and he’s typically credited for turning the ailing Japanese automaker round from the beginning of his tenure in 2001. In 2018, although, Ghosn stepped down resulting from moral misconduct.
Nissan launched an investigation into Ghosn for underreporting compensation and for different moral lapses, together with the non-public use of firm belongings. Within the fiscal third quarter of 2018, Nissan recorded 9.2 billion yen ($85 million in 2018) that had not been booked in prior fiscal years, which the Japan Occasions stated was tied to Ghosn’s compensation scheme.
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Nissan eliminated Ghosn from his positions, however to keep away from jail, Ghosn was secretly flown out of Japan to Lebanon, the birthplace of his paternal grandfather, the place he held Lebanese citizenship.
Japan and Lebanon don’t have any extradition treaty, so Ghosn can’t be handed over to Japanese authorities. Ghosn sued Nissan $1 billion for his dismissal, and Nissan sued Ghosn $90 million to recuperate cash from his fraudulent compensation.
Elizabeth Holmes resigned as Theranos CEO in 2018.
Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos founder and former CEO)
Elizabeth Holmes based Theranos on the premise {that a} prick of a needle on an individual’s fingertip could possibly be a simple and fewer painful method to extract blood and conduct an in depth bloodwork evaluation. In 2014, Forbes listed her because the youngest self-made billionaire girl, with a internet value of $4.5 billion. In 2015, Forbes put her on their 30 Underneath 30 listing, which highlights individuals underneath 30 years of age for his or her notable achievements in enterprise.
Later that yr, nevertheless, The Wall Road Journal launched a collection of investigative articles on Theranos, reporting that its claims of conducting a whole blood check from only a few drops of blood had been exaggerated. In June 2018, the U.S. filed a case towards Holmes and one other Theranos government, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, for defrauding docs and sufferers “by making false claims concerning Theranos’s ability to provide accurate, fast, reliable, and cheap blood tests and test results,” amongst different prices. Holmes resigned as CEO on the identical day of the indictment.
The pair was additionally discovered to have lied to buyers about Theranos’ capacity to generate about $1 billion in income in 2015, when in fact, the corporate might solely generate modest revenues. In April 2023, Holmes started serving an 11-year, 3-month sentence in federal jail for defrauding buyers to the tune of a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars}.
Adam Neumann stepped down as WeWork CEO in 2019.
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Adam Neumann (WeWork co-founder and former CEO)
Adam Neumann had some early failures beginning companies, however he struck it wealthy with the 2010 founding of WeWork, an organization that took over buildings and leased out shared workplace house. Small companies and people who couldn’t afford to lease a full suite in an workplace constructing might now arrange store in a constructing that WeWork retrofitted with a modern-looking structure and furnishings.
WeWork began with a small house in Manhattan, and at its peak in 2019, it reportedly had 800 places in 124 cities worldwide. Neumann served as CEO from 2010 to 2019, when he stepped down simply earlier than a deliberate IPO, precisely when WeWork’s unicorn standing began to unravel.
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The corporate’s prospectus raised crimson flags on future profitability, though billions of {dollars} had been invested to fund an aggressive growth plan. The corporate was locked in on long-term leases, however its income stream was primarily based on short-term leases.
WeWork reportedly had a peak valuation of $47 billion earlier than the deliberate IPO, however its monetary unraveling derailed its IPO hopes and lowered its non-public worth. Neumann then stepped down as CEO—however not earlier than he was given $1.7 billion by the corporate’s board to sever his ties with WeWork. The saga was immortalized within the documentary, “WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn.”
Travis Kalanick stepped down as Uber CEO in 2017.
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Travis Kalanick (Uber co-founder and former CEO)
Travis Kalanick co-founded the ride-hailing app in 2009 and was its CEO from 2010 to 2017. After the primary iPhone was bought in 2007, smartphone apps grew to become a well-liked medium round which newer firms constructed their companies. Uber was among the many early tech firms that took benefit of the rise in app use, growing a method to join drivers with riders.
The app grew to become standard, attracting tens of millions of customers in a matter of some brief years. Buyers poured in billions of {dollars}, and the recognition of Uber’s service led to an exponential development in jobs, with 12,000 employed by 2017.
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In early 2017, nevertheless, accusations of a poisonous work tradition and sexual harassment went public, and by mid-2017, Uber adopted a set of suggestions designed to “improve our culture, promote fairness and accountability, and establish processes and systems to ensure the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.”
Nonetheless, the harm to Uber’s status couldn’t be undone, and accountability fell to prime administration. Kalanick was pressured to resign as CEO later in 2017, and he stepped down as a director in 2019.
Dennis Muilenburg resigned as Boeing CEO in 2019.
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Dennis Muilenburg (former Boeing CEO)
In 2015, Dennis Muilenburg grew to become Boeing’s twelfth CEO because the aerospace firm was based in 1916, however his tenure could be short-lived in comparison with his predecessors, who usually served 10 years or extra.
Muilenburg joined the corporate in 1985, and he labored in program administration and engineering positions supporting its industrial airplanes and protection companies for 15 years. He was then promoted to protection contract positions earlier than shifting on to government roles.
Boeing was formidable in its improvement of the 737 MAX, a short-haul aircraft that’s smaller than the 787 Dreamliner and designed to compete with Airbus’s new plane, the A320neo. The MAX was primarily based on the 737 mannequin however had larger engines, and its up to date design lowered prices in comparison with designing a brand new plane outright.
The MAX confronted technical points, and two deadly accidents raised issues about Boeing and its administration crew. In 2018, a MAX plane operated by Lion Air, an Indonesian airliner, crashed after takeoff, killing all 189 passengers and crew, and in 2019, a MAX plane flown by Ethiopian Airways crashed six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 on board. Boeing’s automated flight management system was partly in charge.
Following the Ethiopian Airways incident, Muilenburg stepped down as CEO in December 2019.
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Different ousted CEOs value mentioning
Loads of different CEOs have additionally been summarily dismissed in high-profile incidents over the previous many years. Listed below are only a few of them:
Sam Bankman-Fried is the previous CEO of FTX, a now-defunct cryptocurrency trade. Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO in November 2022, simply as the corporate filed for chapter amid allegations of misusing clients’ cash. As soon as value as a lot as $26 billion earlier than turning 30, his internet value all however evaporated with FTX’s demise.
John Stumpf, former CEO of Wells Fargo, resigned in October 2016 after virtually a decade within the position. He needed to forfeit $41 million in inventory awards after Wells Fargo admitted to improper gross sales practices inside its retail financial institution. The financial institution was accused of opening tens of millions of accounts for purchasers with out their information.
Bernard Ebbers is the late former CEO of WorldCom, whose belongings had been acquired by Verizon after the corporate’s chapter. Ebbers was the co-founder and CEO of the telecommunications firm. He was pressured to step down in April 2002 after allegations of accounting irregularities got here to mild, and the corporate went out of business. Finally, investigators found $11 billion in accounting fraud. Ebbers obtained a 25-year jail sentence in 2005 however was launched in late 2019 resulting from poor well being. He died at 78 shortly after his launch.
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