Victor Lund
Age: 69
Job: President and chief executive of Teradata Corp.
Career: A member of Teradata's board since September 2007 and the chair of the audit committee from 2007 until May 2016.
Non-executive chairman of the board of DemandTec, Inc. from December 2006 until February 2012.
Vce chairman of Albertson’s, Inc. from 1999 to 2002.
Chairman and CEO of American Stores Co. During his 22-year career with American Stores, Lund held executive positions of increasing responsibility, including chief financial officer and executive vice president.
Source: Teradata
About Teradata
• The company is one of the biggest publicly-traded companies in the Dayton area.
• The company employs around 400 people in high-paying tech jobs in Miami Twp.
• The company’s stock has struggled in past year, dropping nearly 46 percent from a high of $53.75 a share.
• The company is a spinoff from NCR.
A shakeup in Teradata Corp.’s leadership came Thursday as the company reported a $46 million loss for the first quarter of the year.
Victor Lund, a board member with the Miami Twp.-based company, was named the new president and CEO of Teradata, replacing former CEO Mike Koehler, who the company said resigned.
Koehler had served as Teradata’s leader since 2007. The CEO announcement is among several top leadership changes in the company in the past six months.
Teradata, a spinoff from NCR, is important to the Dayton region because it not only is one of the area’s biggest publicly traded companies, but employs 400 people locally in high-paying jobs and more than 11,000 worldwide.
The analytics, data warehousing and services company based at Austin Landing has struggled in the past year, seeing its stock price drop nearly 46 percent from a high of $53.75.
In November, under the leadership of Koehler, Teradata announced plans to sell its marketing applications business as part of a series of initiatives to improve the company’s performance. That part of the business was sold last month.
It was clear from Lund’s talk to analysts on Thursday during Teradata’s earnings call that changes are coming to the company.
“Given my age, it’s clear that I am not going to be the CEO of Teradata over the long run, but I want to assure you that I have no intention of being a caretaker either,” Lund, 68, said.
“My belief is that we can maintain a proper cost focus, but we need to ensure that is not coming at the expense of profitable revenue growth. …I will also focus on the change in our culture, to instill a sense of urgency and accountability.”
The “sense of urgency” comment was promising for Srini Nandury, an analyst with Summit Research who tracks software and hardware companies.
“The new CEO exuded a sense of urgency which was clearly lacking in the prior administration. The new CEO talked about making TDC a ‘tech company’ – meaning he wants the company to be focused, nimble and hard charging,” Nandury wrote in his report.
The CEO news helped increase Teradata shares (NYSE: TDC). Shares closed Thursday at $26.27 up $1.87 or nearly 7.7 percent from Wednesday’s close.
“Vic has been a valuable contributor to the Teradata board, and, importantly, he has been instrumental in the board’s oversight of Teradata’s transformation,” Jim Ringler, chairman of Teradata’s board, said in one of the company’s statements. “Vic is an accomplished executive with a deep understanding of our business, operations and the strategies we are implementing.”
In a release, Koehler said: “It has been a privilege to lead Teradata’s talented employees for the past 14 years, and I am extremely proud of the many accomplishments achieved by the Teradata team during my tenure. I believe now is the right time for new leadership to take the company forward.”
“It is an honor to be appointed president and chief executive officer of Teradata,” Lund said. “During my time on the Teradata board, I have gained an intimate knowledge of where we are, but, more importantly, of where we need to go. I have a passion for Teradata and our transformation, and I intend to oversee a rigorous implementation of the needed changes.”
New CEO thinks ‘outside the box’
David Katz, president of a New York City-based investment management firm that last year advised Teradata to consider selling itself, said Thursday’s news was likely good for the company,
Katz’ company, Matrix Asset Advisors, sold its position in Teradata last year. “A bad investment for us,” Katz said.
But Katz said he still follows Teradata though he is no longer a shareholder. His firm has spoken with both the outgoing and incoming CEOs. He said his impression of Koehler was that he didn’t understand the “gravity” of Teradata’s situation.
Early in 2015, Matrix urged Teradata’s board to conduct a strategic review aimed at maximizing shareholder value, but also recommended that the board pursue a sale of the company.
“The net-net is, it’s a positive for the company,” Katz said of the leadership change.
One consideration for Lund is that he has sold a business before, American Stores Co., Katz said
Lund had a two-decade career with American Stores Co. as chairman and CEO, CFO and controller. In 1998, Albertson’s Inc. bought competitor American Stores Co. for about $8.4 billion in stock.
But Katz said he doesn’t know if Teradata’s board is somehow positioning Teradata for an eventual sale of the company. “That I don’t have any sense on. But the stock is reacting well today.”
“We do know that Lund in the past has thought outside the box,” Katz added. “Our guess is that he probably has a more open mind.”
Previous leadership shakeups
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Teradata said Koehler resigned. He will be paid a cash severance of $2.7 million and is also eligible to receive his annual incentive bonus for 2016, the filing said.
In December, Teradata said its board decided to dissolve a “co-president management structure,” eliminating a position held by Hermann Wimmer.
At the same time, Teradata also named Robert Fair as company’s chief operating officer and Koehler was named president in addition to what was then his current job as CEO.
Also in recent months, Bruce Langos, Teradata’s chief operations officer, left the company to start a data center for the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.
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