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Siebel dumps CEO Lawrie for Shaheen
By Laura Rohde

Business applications company Siebel Systems Inc. has appointed George Shaheen as its new chief executive officer (CEO), effective immediately, the company announced Wednesday.

Shaheen is replacing Michael Lawrie, who became CEO just last May. Siebel's board of directors and Lawrie agreed mutually that he would resign the position, the San Mateo, California company said.

Lawrie's dismissal comes just hours before a scheduled meeting of disgruntled institutional shareholders. Providence Capital Inc. arranged the New York meeting, at which it planned to discuss with other major investors Siebel's strategy and board of directors composition.

Shaheen, 60, has been a member of Siebel's board since 1995. Until resigning in 2001, he was CEO and board chairman of the now defunct Webvan Group Inc., a company he joined in 1999 after leaving his job as managing partner and CEO of Andersen Consulting Inc., which later became Accenture Ltd.

Siebel highlighted Shaheen's experience at Andersen Consulting as particularly relevant to his new position at Siebel, saying that he has a track record of building strong customer value and developing a global brand, all while consistently meeting or exceeding financial expectations.

Siebel has been weathering rough financial waters recently. Earlier this month the company announced that it expects revenue and earnings for the first three months of 2005 to come in below expectations, as a result of deals slipping through in the quarter's final days.

Siebel forecast total revenue for the quarter, which ended March 31, to come in between US$297 million and $300 million. The consensus forecast of analysts polled by Thomson First Call was for revenue of $337.5 million. In last year's first quarter, Siebel had revenue of $329.3 million.

Shaheen is quoted in the statement as saying he plans to develop Siebel's strategy on promoting its CRM (customer relationship management) customer-facing applications while also extending the reach of its products into the front office market which he sees as a largely untapped opportunity.

(Additional reporting by Marc Ferranti and Stacy Cowley in New York.)

Posted April 13, 2005 03:42 PM |