The head of Ballard Power Systems Inc. has unexpectedly left the company, casting a shadow of uncertainty over the money-burning fuel-cell maker.
Dennis Campbell has left Ballard effective immediately, barely three years after he was recruited from the United States as a leader who could supposedly transform it from concept company to commercial producer.
“The board's decision was that this was the right time for a leadership change,” Ballard chairman John Sheridan, who is to fill in as interim CEO, said Thursday. The search for a replacement will likely take six to eight months, he said.
Reached at home in West Vancouver, Mr. Campbell, 57, acknowledged his exit was the board's idea, but said the timing was also right from his perspective. “I want to do something more challenging that fits with my aspirations,” he said.
“So I'm eager to do that, and eager to get back to the States,” Mr. Campbell said.
Ballard's shares, which have fallen from more than $200 apiece since 1999, dropped on the news.
They closed at $5.84 on the Toronto Stock Exchange Thursday, down 18 cents from Wednesday's finish.
Mr. Campbell said the automobile industry, Ballard's prime target market, is now not expected to get into full-scale production of cars with hydrogen fuel cell technology until the 2012-to-2015 period.
That is much later than was expected when he signed on with the company in mid-2002 as president and chief operating officer and designated successor to then CEO Firoz Rasul, who stepped down the following March. Ballard hired him away from his post as president of the world's largest manufacturer of vacuum cleaner bags, Home Care Industries Inc. of Clifton, N.J.
“When they were recruiting me, the company was gearing up for a drive to commercialization ... and they were really looking for a senior CEO kind of guy ... who had the experience to come in and take the company to that level,” he said.
“Well, when I got here, we found out quickly that although this technology is going to change the world, it's going to take some time. The pace and rhythm of the automobile industry is slow.”
With that more distant horizon, he was forced to concentrate on refocusing Ballard, restructuring to cut costs and trying to reduce its heavy losses. Most recently, this involved cutting Ballard's work force by another 15 per cent and selling its German unit to shareholders Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG. The sale reduced the auto makers' combined stake in Ballard to 30.7 per cent from 37.4 per cent.
“We've downsized the company [so] we need to downsize the CEO,” Mr. Campbell said. His successor, he added, will be someone who is “better suited for what the next several years have to be for the company.”
Analyst Brian Piccioni at BMO Nesbitt Burns in Toronto said there were “absolutely” no signs during an investor day Ballard held late last month that a CEO change was in the works. He called Mr. Campbell a “skilled operator.”
Mr. Sheridan, a former president and COO of telecommunications provider Bell Canada, would not say how long the Ballard board had been looking at replacing Mr. Campbell, but said the decision was taken at a meeting Wednesday.
He also said Burnaby, B.C.-based Ballard is now “well positioned” to move ahead. Its annual “cash burn,” he said by way of example, is now down to about $50-million to $60-million from “over twice that” a couple of years ago.
© The Globe and Mail
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