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Peloton Cofounder And Former CEO Had Several Margin Calls Ahead of Stepping Down

Greg Morcroft

Published: October 13, 2022 7:47 pm

John Foley, the Peloton (US:PTON) co-founder and the former chief executive officer who stepped down in September, had faced several broker margin calls leading up to his departure. Still, he said the demands didn’t precipitate his exit.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Foley was issued repeated margin calls on loans he borrowed against his Peloton stake. The paper further said that Foley insisted he left the firm for other, non-disclosed reasons.

“I didn’t resign from the board because I was underwater. To the extent that I took on debt through Goldman, it was because I am bullish on Peloton and still am. It was and is a great company,” the WSJ quoted Foley as saying.

According to the paper, Foley pledged about 20% of his Peloton stake on margin a year ago, when it was worth $300 million before the shares fell 90%. The report said he managed to secure outside financing to cover the call and did not sell shares to meet the demand.

Foley and his wife Jill’s 6.6 million shares are now worth less than $100 million.

Peloton’s been rejigging its management and, on Sept. 12, accepted the resignations of Foley as Executive Chair and Hisao Kushi as Chief Legal Officer.

Foley co-founded Peloton in 2012 and was widely hailed for building the company into the largest interactive fitness company in the world. He served as Peloton CEO for ten years and became executive chairman in February.

Peloton director Karen Boone takes over as chairman. She’s been a director since 2019 and will lead an independent director in 2021. She joined the company after serving as President, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer of Restoration Hardware (RH).

Kushi co-founded Peloton and has served as its Chief Legal Officer since 2015.

Tammy Albarran will replace Kushi as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary for Peloton, effective Oct. 3, 2022. Before joining Peloton, she worked as Chief Deputy General Counsel and Deputy Corporate Secretary at Uber Technologies (US:UBER).

Peloton has been expanding its sales channels beyond its proprietary stores and website and recently unveiled plans to sell on Amazon.com and through Dick’s Sporting Goods locations.

This article originally appeared on Fintel