Dell Appoints New CFO

Dell’s chief financial officer is leaving the company and being replaced by the former head of a plastics company that had been part of General Electric, company officials announced May 19.

Don Carty will leave his CFO position on June 13 and be replaced by Brian Gladden, former president and CEO of SABIC Innovative Plastics Holding, which had been formerly called GE Plastics. Carty will remain on Dell’s board of directors.

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The latest shake-up in Dell’s corporate offices comes when the company is looking to transform itself from its traditional role as PC maker into a more global company that focuses on technology innovations and IT services. In April, Michael Dell detailed a plan that looked to focus on five key areas, including enterprise services, small and midsize businesses, and the consumer market.

In a move to regain some of the financial stability it lost over the past years, Dell is looking to trim about 9,000 positions and begin transferring some of its PC production, especially desktops, overseas. The company aims to save about $3 billion in costs during the next three years.

During its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Feb. 1, Dell’s net income was $679 million, or 33 cents per share, which is a 6.5 percent drop from the $726 million in net income the company posted a year ago. For the quarter, Dell's revenue increased from $14.5 billion last year to $16 billion this year. The company’s next financial report is scheduled for May 29.

In a statement, Michael Dell did not indicate why Carty, who has been with the company since 1992 and had previously worked as a top executive with AMR, parent company of American Airlines, decided to leave now.

“Don has played a key role in re-establishing transparency and integrity in our financial practices and we are extremely grateful to have had his leadership. We look forward to his continuing contributions and experience,” Dell said in a statement, which referred to the company’s problems with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that plagued the company’s finances in 2007.

Carty is not the only executive to leave the company. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported the retirement of Marty Garvin, who oversaw procurements at Dell, and the upcoming departure of Thomas Welch, a vice president in the legal department.