The OEM has named a new CTO and CFO, and will ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in early January.
The OEM announced at the beginning of this year that it planned to split into two companies before the end of the year, with the split into Conduent and Xerox – for business process optimisation and hardware respectively, and worth $11 billion (€10.1 billion) and $7 billion (€6.4 billion) respectively. Xerox’ new CEO was revealed to be Jeff Jacobson, while Ashok Vemuri will run Conduent.
Earlier this year in November, the OEM’s largest shareholder, who attempted to block the split, agreed a settlement in a court case. Darwin Deason had sued Xerox because of the spin-off of its document outsourcing business, as he felt that his shares would lose value after the split. However, during November, the OEM’s board approved the split and hoped it would take place by 31 December.
The OEM announced that its new CTO would be Steve Hoover from 1 January, with Hoover currently CEO of Xerox subsidiary PARC (Palo Alto Research Centre. Hoover “will be responsible for research and product development”, and will “oversee the Xerox global research centres” including PARC and one each in Canada and Europe, alongside the OEM’s “globally distributed product development and engineering capabilities”.
He joined PARC in 2011 after working as Vice President of the Xerox Research Centre of Webster, and the OEM noted he “has helped transform PARC from Xerox’s flagship research laboratory to a world-class R&D organisation”, having worked at Xerox since 1994 in “a variety of roles”. He replaces Sophie Vandebroek, who will retire at the end of the year, having joined Xerox in 1991 and served as CTO “for more than a decade”
In turn, William F. Osbourn, Jr. was named as the OEM’s new CFO, replacing the retiring Leslie Varon. Osbourn joined the OEM on 5 December and will be the financial officer in charge of the technology business after a 13-year career at Time Warner Cable (TWC), where he ended up as co-CFO as well as Controller and Chief Accounting Officer (CAO). Varon meanwhile served as CFO from October 2015, having worked for Xerox for 36 years in “a variety of senior finance roles”.
Jacobson commented: “Steve’s experience at PARC provides a great foundation for building on Xerox’s strong innovation heritage. His leadership will help drive new, cutting-edge technologies that redefine how work gets done for our customers – leading the way to enhanced productivity, efficiency and profitability.
“Bill is a pragmatic and tenacious leader and we are thrilled to have him as part of the Xerox leadership team. He brings strong experience in driving change, which will serve us well as we continue our strategic transformation program and look to maximise the potential of this great company.”
Finally, the OEM confirmed on LinkedIn that it would “kick off 2017” on 4 January “by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange”.