Norm Wesley Transitions Out of CEO Role at Fortune Brands (FO)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Fortune Brands (NYSE:FO) is doing something we didn’t expect to see, at least not any time soon.  Its CEO & Chairman, Norm Wesley, is transitioning out of the CEO role effective January 1, 2008.  The company’s COO & President, Bruce Carbonari was elected CEO effective January 1, 2008.  What is odd is that Norm Wesley is only 57 years old, and we had just named him one of the entrenched CEO’s early this year.

Wesley is continuing to evaluate strategic initiatives, including the interest in and sale of Absolut Vodka.  Carbonari has been with Fortune Brands for 17 years and he’s been an officer since 1999, so it isn’t as though this is a newbie taking the helm from an industry leader. 

This has to make you wonder if the millions being thrown around out there in private equity didn’t lure Mr. Wesley away as a contract CEO or CEO advisor.  Carbonari has to know that Wesley has had a good reputation, and following in his footsteps will be some tough shoes to fill.

Jon C. Ogg
August 20, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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