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Kinaxis names corporate veteran Robert Courteau executive chair amid hunt for new CEO

September 17, 2024

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Kinaxis has appointed veteran corporate leader Robert Courteau to the role of executive chair as the Kanata-based supply-chain management software company searches for a successor to outgoing CEO John Sicard. In a business update this week, Kinaxis said Courteau, who has been on the company’s board of directors since 2016 and was named chair in June, will serve in the new role until a permanent replacement for Sicard is found. Kinaxis’s latest upper management shakeup comes weeks after the firm surprised analysts when it announced Sicard would be retiring at the end of 2024 after eight years on the job and chief sales officer Claire Rychlewski would be leaving the company after less than a year in her current role. Courteau will “continue to work closely with (Sicard) and the senior leadership team to drive the company’s strategy until a new CEO is in place,” Kinaxis said in a news release on Tuesday. Courteau, who holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Concordia University, has more than three decades of experience in senior management roles. His resume includes a nine-year stint at business software giant SAP, where he spent seven years as the firm’s global chief operating officer before being promoted to president of its North American operations in 2011. After leaving SAP the following year, Courteau was named CEO of real estate advisory, software and data provider Altus Group, a role he held for eight years. Since 2021, he’s served as a senior adviser to New York-based investment firm BlackRock. Courteau said his focus as executive chair will be on “supporting the management team in driving the company’s strategy forward,” adding the Kinaxis board “continues to engage with longer-term and newer shareholders to elicit their views on the business.” “I look forward to continuing to work closely with fellow directors and management to ensure that the company is optimally positioned to create growing and sustainable value for shareholders,” he said in a statement on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Kinaxis also announced that Angel Mendez, who has had a seat on the board for nearly nine years, has been appointed lead independent director. In a statement, the company said its board of directors has “taken decisive action” in recent months to refine its strategy and execution. Kinaxis said it’s working with a “leading management consulting firm” on initiatives aimed at increasing the company’s value, improving its profitability margins and capturing more of a supply-chain management software market it pegs at US$16 billion.

Firm urged to explore sale

The new appointments also come fast on the heels of a leading Kinaxis shareholder’s call for the company to be put on the auction block amid a wave of recent C-suite departures and a falling valuation. In a letter to Kinaxis’s board of directors last week, New York-based Daventry Group, which owns about 1.4 per cent of the company, urged the board to “immediately formalize a process to explore a sale” with the aim of bringing in new owners to oversee the hiring of the next chief executive. Daventry argues that the Kanata firm, which has seen its share price drop nearly 20 per cent since the end of 2020, has failed to fully capitalize on growing demand for supply-chain management products in a post-COVID world. The investment firm says it believes putting Kinaxis on the block would trigger “an enormous amount of interest from both strategic and financial acquirers that could allow Kinaxis to immediately close the valuation gap” with its peers. In a response to the letter last week, Kinaxis said it was “disappointed” in Daventry’s decision to publish the letter, adding it continues to solicit feedback from shareholders. On Tuesday, the firm doubled down on its commitment to its current path, saying the board “strongly believes that execution of its strategic plan is the best path to maximize shareholder value.” The company said it “continues to develop and evaluate its plan” and has hired New York-based multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs to provide financial advice. In a research note Tuesday, National Bank of Canada Financial Markets analyst Richard Tse described Courteau as a “seasoned executive” whose appointment suggests Kinaxis is “increasing its diligence in regard to maximizing shareholder value, which we think is positive for the stock.” Kinaxis shares were down $1.03, or about two-thirds of a percentage point, to $153.44 in late-afternoon trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.