Three CEOs in three years: Lexmark chief quits, citing ‘personal reasons’

Lexmark’s president and CEO resigned abruptly on Tuesday, just over a year after he took the helm of the Lexington-based company.

Lexmark said in a news release that Rich Geruson had decided to resign “for personal reasons, effective immediately.” He also resigned from his position on the company’s board.

Lexmark has now had three CEOS in three years.

Geruson replaced David Reeder in November, 2017. Reeder resigned as head of Lexmark after only seven months, also citing personal reasons. Longtime CEO Paul Rooke left Lexmark in 2016 after the company was bought out by a consortium of Asian investors and sold off its software business.

Lexmark employs 1,400 at its Lexington complex.

Geruson had spent six years as CEO and president of Phoenix Technologies, which provides firmware and optimization software for PCs, tablets and Internet-embedded devices. He had also been CEO of Voice Signal, which pioneered voice recognition software for mobile phones.

The company said the search for Geruson’s successor has already begun. In the meantime, Lexmark is being led by a team consisting of three senior vice presidents: Chief Technology Officer Allen Waugerman, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary Brent Lambert and Chief Financial Officer Vivian Liu.

“The board of directors, the company’s investors and the entire Lexmark organization remain singularly focused on profitably growing our business and continuing to deliver world-class, industry-leading products and services to our customers,” Mickey Kantor, chairman of the board of directors, said in the release. “We continue to be very confident about the long-term success of Lexmark.”

Lexmark spokeswoman Sherlyn Manson said in an e-mail the company had no additional response about the company’s future direction beyond the Kantor comment in the release.

Lexmark announced in July that it would lay off 1,000 people worldwide over the next year as part of a “restructuring program.” A year earlier, the company had laid off 700 worldwide.

Geruson, a former president and CEO of Phoenix Technologies, joined Lexmark in October 2017, replacing David Reeder, who had been at Lexmark for just seven months.

“On behalf of the Lexmark team, I would like to thank Rich and wish him and his family well,” Kantor said in the release.

A 2017 lawsuit alleged that Lexmark “made false and misleading statements” about demand, inventory and growth supplies business in 2014-15 that cost shareholders more than a half a billion dollars. The suit, filed by the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System, is still pending in the United States District Court for the southern district of New York.

Reporter Karla Ward contributed to this report.

This story was originally published November 20, 2018 at 10:48 PM.