Leadership issues

Cardo's President and CEO, Peter Aru, has stepped in as head of Cardo’s Wastewater Technology Solutions division, for a second time, as the company struggles to recruit a suitable replacement for Tomas Wängberg.

Wängberg had headed the Wastewater Technology Solutions division, which includes the ABS pumps brand, since April 2007. He left Cardo in February 2009, moving out of teh pump industry. In the first instance, Ulf Liljedahl, Cardo’s CFO and Executive Vice President, took over as acting head of the division while attempts were made to find a suitable replacement. With that search proving unsuccessful, Aru has taken back control of the main pump-manufacturing division he had passed on to Wängberg in 2007.

The company faces another recruitment headache following the news that the head of the Pulp & Paper Solutions division, Peter Uddfors, is leaving Cardo. Uddfors is set to become CEO of the listed company Micronic Laser Systems AB. He had joined Cardo in 2003 and was appointed head of division in 2006.

There are no such problems with succession planning at Flowserve. Mark Blinn, 47, has just been named as its next President and Chief Executive Officer, beginning October 1, 2009. He replaces Lewis M. Kling, whose retirement is scheduled for his 65th birthday in February, 2010. Kling will take up a role as Vice Chairman of the Board from October and so will be well-placed to ease Blinn's transition into one of the pump industry's top jobs.

Blinn joined Flowserve in 2004 as Chief Financial Officer after serving in the same capacity at Kinko’s prior to its acquisition by FedEx. In addition to his role as CFO with Flowserve, Blinn has also been in charge of Latin America operations for the company since October, 2007.

Before we get any negative comments about accountants running pump companies, I should point out that Blinn’s first degree was a B.S. in engineering, although he went on to add a J.D. in law and an M.B.A. at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.