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Top CA
Sales Executive Is Leaving
By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY
June 5, 2006 12:50 p.m.
CA Inc.'s world-wide sales chief is leaving in
the wake of a costly sales commission debacle, continuing an
executive-suite exodus.
CA said that Gregory Corgan, 52 years old, was leaving
the post, which he has held since 2004. CA, based in Islandia, N.Y., and
formerly known as Computer Associates International, said it won't fill
the job. Instead five lower-level sales executives will now report
directly to recently promoted chief operating officer Michael
Christenson.
In April, CA shocked investors by disclosing that it
expected earnings for its fourth quarter to fall below expectations,
partly due to larger than expected sales commissions. Since then it has
said that it would delay reporting its results for fiscal 2006, ended
March 31, because it needs more time to complete calculations of sales
commissions and taxes. It also said that sales commissions weren't
properly aligned with company growth.
Last month Chief Financial Officer Robert Davis left
the company by mutual consent. People familiar with the situation said
that Mr. Davis's departure was connected to the sales-commission issue
and bad forecasting of results from companies CA acquired last year.
Messrs. Corgan and Davis couldn't be reached for comment. CA didn't say
what his plans were or give a reason for his departure.
Mr. Corgan's departure expands management turnover at
CA, which has been trying to rebound from an accounting scandal in which
contracts were backdated to inflate earnings in quarters that were
already over. The scandal resulted in resignations and guilty pleas by a
number of officers, including former Chief Executive Sanjay Kumar.
John Swainson, a former top software executive of
International Business Machines Corp. was named chief executive in
late 2004 and has been trying to rebuild CA's software development
operations and investor confidence. CA's chief operating officer, Jeff
Clarke, and chief technology officer, Mark Barrenechea, both left the
company in recent months to take what they described as jobs they wanted
at other companies.
Mr. Corgan, a onetime IBM executive, had joined CA in
2003 after brief stints at two small companies.
Write to William M. Bulkeley at
bill.bulkeley@wsj.com1
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