Rogers makes some tweaks to management structure
Rogers Communications Inc. is tweaking its top management reporting structure while in between CEOs.
The family controlled communications giant is adjusting organizational moves made under the “Rogers 3.0” strategy launched by former CEO Guy Laurence, who was ousted last fall due to mounting clashes with the Rogers family and key board members over his management and leadership style.
His replacement, former Telus Corp. CEO Joseph Natale, cannot take the reins until July when his non-compete contract with Telus expires. But Rogers isn’t waiting for Natale’s arrival to make some changes under interim CEO Alan Horn.
Rogers is realigning its structure so the centralized brand unit, created when Laurence revamped the management structure in May 2014, now reports into the consumer, media or enterprise business units, depending on the area of work.
The changes relegate chief brand officer Dale Hooper to report to the head of the consumer business unit, the largest of the three by far.
Hooper, who was hired by Rogers in 2011, was promoted to the senior leadership team a month after Laurence’s overhaul, which also split the company’s communications division into three parts and removed Melinda Rogers and her brother Edward Rogers from their executive positions.
In response to questions about the motivation behind the changes, a Rogers spokesperson said the company has “built strong brands with great momentum.”
“Our brand team continues to play an integral role across the company and work in a coordinated, centralized way,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The process that created the centralized brand unit apparently added to the fray in relations between Laurence and the family even though he was hired to shake things up at the company.
At the time, Laurence told reporters the siblings were both “still members of the board, we’re still friends, we still talk every day.”
Along with the reporting shift in the upper echelons, two executives on the senior leadership team announced their departures within the last two months.
Chief strategy officer Frank Boulben, a former BlackBerry executive who replaced Melinda Rogers, is preparing to leave, and chief corporate affairs officer Jacob Glick left last month.
Boulben and Glick were both hired under Laurence’s watch.
Analysts say changes at the top are expected with a new CEO, adding that Natale’s upcoming arrival is far more material to Rogers’s performance than relatively minor senior leadership shifts.
Others expressed surprise that Rogers didn’t wait for Natale to make his own decisions about the senior leadership team.
Rogers’s stock closed at an alltime high of $59.46 on Tuesday.
In a note to clients, CIBC World Markets analyst Robert Bek pointed out that Rogers is outperforming its peers and the TSX so far this year. Still, CIBC downgraded the company to neutral from outperformer based on its valuation despite its positive long-term view.
Rogers holds its AGM and reports its quarterly results in two weeks.