Citrix starts hunt for new leader after top executive resigns
Citrix Systems of Fort Lauderdale is in the hunt for a new president and CEO after David Henshall stepped down from his posts as well as from the board of directors on Wednesday.
Citrix made the announcement after the stock market closed late Wednesday. Henshall, 52, has served as Citrix’s top executive since 2017.
The move comes one month after a major hedge fund bought $1 billion, or 10%, of the company’s stock.
In mid-September, Bloomberg reported the 32-year-old technology company was considering putting itself up for sale after its stock price fell 16% year over year and Elliott Management Co. had again taken a sizable investment stake in Citrix. The company was said to be working financial advisers to assess potential buyer interest.
Stepping into Henshall’s positions on an interim basis will be Bob Calderoni, 61, who chairs the Citrix board. He will hold the positions through the end of next September, or until a new permanent CEO is hired, according to an employment agreement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He’ll earn a $1 million base salary.
This is the third tour at the top for Calderoni, who temporarily held the CEO and president positions in 2015-2016 after a similar investment foray into Citrix stock by Elliott Management. At the time, the firm acquired 7.1% of Citrix shares and obtained a board seat which it held through last spring. In 2015, he stepped in after the departure of Mark Templeton.
In the company’s Wednesday statement, Calderoni said Henshall was “instrumental in helping the company and our employees navigate the pandemic, and successfully positioned Citrix to help customers around the world and across industries maintain business operations with minimal disruption,”
Henshall said he is “confident that the company will continue to innovate and deliver for all stakeholders” under the leadership of Calderoni, “who is deeply familiar with Citrix.”
The company’s statement gave no reasons for the executive changes and offered no details about a search process for a replacement. Citrix also made no mention of hiring financial advisers or seeking a buyer.
A spokeswoman said Citrix had “no comment on the news beyond what we’ve stated in the press release.”
But Citrix, which was founded by local entrepreneurs in 1989, has endured a tough road building a subscription-based model for virtual-desktop services. However, the COVID19 pandemic gave the software maker a lift as customers sought more of its remote-work services, according to reports. Nonetheless, the company missed delivering on its Wall Street sales forecasts over its last two financial quarters, and its stock price is down by nearly 20% over the last year. The Wall Street Journal reported that 38% of analysts following Citrix stock rate it as a ‘buy’ “compared with 50% a year ago.”