Two Senior Avon Executives Leaving in Restructuring
10 December 2015 - 11:10AM
Dow Jones News
Two top executives of Avon Products Inc. are leaving, according
to people familiar with the matter, as the embattled cosmetics
giant restructures its operations and explores strategic
options.
Brian Salsberg, senior vice president for global strategy, and
David Powell, senior vice president for business transformation and
global supply chain, plan to leave at year-end, one of the people
said. Their exits were communicated within the company last month,
this person added. The two executives declined to comment on
Wednesday.
Both executives were brought to Avon in 2013 by Chief Executive
Sherilyn McCoy in her effort to turn around the company.
James Scully, who joined Avon as finance chief earlier this
year, will assume more strategic and operational duties as a result
of the departures, these people added. In November, Avon said Mr.
Scully would take on the added role of chief operating officer
starting Jan. 1. On an earnings conference call last month, Ms.
McCoy said Mr. Scully was taking on expanded duties "in order to
create better operating efficiencies and effectiveness." At that
time, she also disclosed other shifts in Avon's management
structure.
The executive changes come as the 130-year-old company is close
to selling its North American operations to a private-equity firm
and dealing with the arrival of an activist investor, The Wall
Street Journal has reported.
Avon is in talks to sell part of its business to Cerberus
Capital Management LP, which would become one of the company's
biggest shareholders. Meanwhile, an activist group including
Barington Capital Group LP has purchased a stake of about 3% and
says the company needs new directors.
Both Messrs. Powell and Salsberg currently serve on Avon's
executive committee. It is unclear what role they would have played
in the organization if Avon completes a transaction with
Cerberus.
Mr. Powell, 58 years old, spent more than 10 years at Johnson
& Johnson, where Ms. McCoy was a senior executive before she
joined Avon in 2012. He joined the company the following year. His
duties include overseeing Avon's cost-cutting efforts.
Mr. Salsberg, 42, occupies a position that Avon created when it
recruited him in 2013 from McKinsey & Co., where he had co-led
the management consulting firm's consumer and retail practice in
Asia.
Their exits are part of a series of changes in Avon's top
management structure.
Write to Joann S. Lublin at joann.lublin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 09, 2015 18:55 ET (23:55 GMT)
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