Eastman Kodak Co. (OTC: EKDKQ) is dead as far as its stock goes, or at least it might as well be at 11 cents a share. This company has been one of the longest. drawn out train wrecks that has taken about 15 years to play out as the digital age destroyed Kodak’s core markets. Its bankruptcy will be studied by business school students as a case study for years into the future. The lesson will be simply: “How to Save a Dying Business in a Dying Industry.” One thing has been more than puzzling to us, and that is how on earth this company continues to see fit that Antonio Perez should stay on as Kodak’s chief executive officer.

In a restructuring and leadership announcement for who will run Kodak after bankruptcy, somehow the company continues to keep Antonio Perez as the head of the company, even after it emerges from bankruptcy. Keeping him on as an advisor is one thing, but he will remain as CEO and as a member of Kodak’s board of directors. To make matters even worse the company said:

Perez will commit to serve the reorganized company for up to three years following the company’s emergence from Chapter 11. Perez will agree to be CEO for one year from emergence, or until the post-emergence Board of Directors elects his successor, whichever is sooner.

Kodak then goes on to show that Perez “will be actively involved with the Board in identifying the right successor with whom he will work closely to effect a seamless transition.”

The only good news for a future Kodak is that the release shows that Perez will resign from his position as CEO when a successor is found. Even then, this shows that Perez “will continue working closely with his successor and the Board as a full-time special advisor to the Board to effect a seamless transition and facilitate the continued realization of the company’s transformation for a period up to the first anniversary of the company’s emergence.” Kodak will then keep Antonio Perez on in a consulting capacity for up to another two years following the initial one-year term.

What is astonishing here is that the lawyers for and against Kodak all through this bankruptcy, and long before the bankruptcy, did not really make any serious efforts to oust Perez. The Kodak press release about continuity and expertise said:

In consultation with the backstop providers of Kodak’s emergence equity plan, Kodak today outlined its post-emergence executive leadership in supplemental filings to its Plan of Reorganization. This team will ensure continuity in Kodak’s leadership and has the expertise to continue the implementation of the company’s business transformation, which focuses on imaging innovation for business. … The new equity investors have confirmed their acceptance of this management team, which is a condition to Kodak’s emergence equity plan.

Antonio Perez never made any moves fast enough or harsh enough when he joined Kodak. He was late in grasping that a new manager was going to be needed, and the company even sold off its digital properties for a pittance during bankruptcy. Perez was too slow in winding down operations and making the layoffs that the company needed to survive before it was in an unavoidable bankruptcy. Perez was even too slow in trying to force the patent cases, and the move into more printing was poorly timed as well.

Here is the issue that is hard. Perez was well thought of before joining Kodak. Still, what good does it do if you are a nice guy but will not do what it takes to save a company and its investors when you are brought in. Eastman Kodak at one point was so strong and relevant that it was a Dow Jones Industrial Average company. Being booted from the DJIA happened long before Antonio Perez came into the picture.

Keeping Perez around as an advisor, and even as a whipping boy, would have made sense. But having kept Perez on as CEO has been a mystery. The real mystery is that it looks like the company is keeping him on for at least another year after the company emerges from bankruptcy.

We were as outraged that Antonio Perez received a bonus in 2012 as we are that he is somehow allowed to stay on as CEO. This just makes no sense.

It used to be considered that if any public figures and influential people had skeletons in their closet that J. Edgar Hoover probably had a secret file with the details of those skeletons. Antonio Perez must have files on anyone tied to Kodak in any way as well. Otherwise his continued and future tenure as CEO of Eastman Kodak is just not logical by any means. It is insane.

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