Investing

CEOs Who Have to Go: SunEdison's Ahmad Chatila

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: April 17, 2016 9:15 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 10:41 am

As the fortunes of one of the largest alternative energy public company pure plays, SunEdison, collapse and it prepares a Chapter 11 filling, a look back at Ahmad Chatila, one of the CEOs Who Have to Go in 2016, published by 24/7 Wall St. less than two months ago. Incidentally, one of the 24/7 Wall St. measures was stock market performance. The 52-week high for SunEdison is $33.45. Shares recently traded for $0.20.

Without updates, the case against Ahmad Chatila from CEOs Who Have to Go in 2016:

SunEdison
CEO: Ahmad Chatila
Year started: 2009
One year stock price change: -94.5%
Annual compensation: $7.7 million

Ahmad Chatila has been president and CEO of renewable energy company SunEdison Inc. (NYSE: SUNE) since March 2009. Spinoffs and company restructuring have created some controversy, and the company is apparently very low on cash. An effort to raise capital in January resulted in the company’s stock becoming severely diluted. The company’s shares are down 95% from its 52-week high. As liquidity and business model concerns persist, the big question now is whether SunEdison can still make it — even with a new leader. With David Einhorn’s hedge fund Greenlight Capital winning a board seat and several senior officials already forced out, Chatila may begin to feel the pressure from the board. A 95% share price drop is often enough of a bad mark for any CEO. That the company is also closing plants in Malaysia and Texas are just more red flags.

And the methodology:

24/7 Wall St. considered two groups: S&P 500 companies and post-2010 high-tech IPOs with valuations of at least $1 billion. In the first category, a CEO had to hold office for at least three years to to be considered. In the second, the CEO had to be in his or her job for two years.

Some groups of companies were completely excluded because the industries they are in have weakened significantly due to outside forces. The most obvious are energy sector companies. We also excluded companies that have completed major mergers, acquisitions or divestitures in the last year. Hewlett Packard, which split into two companies last November, is among this group.

We examined stock performance over one, two, and five years. CEO compensation was based on a three-year number as of the last proxy.

Finally, the editors used some judgement beyond raw data. CEOs who have repeatedly failed to successfully execute their own primary strategies made this list — even if shares in another S&P 500 or post-2010 IPO company dropped more.