What’s Behind the Sudden Departure of Stream CEO Scott Murray?

Was it Scott Murray’s brash and hard-charging style that led to his sudden departure as top boss at Stream Global Services this week? We may never know the real answer, but there are plenty of surprised looks on the faces of those who work at Stream or do business with the global call center and CRM giant, based outside of Boston. The announcement went out early today that Murray is being replaced by Kathryn Marinello, the former CEO at Ceridian, a major payroll and HR outsourcing firm.

Murray is certainly not leaving under a cloud like Mark Hurd did during his sudden resignation at HP just a few weeks ago, but the news does come as somewhat of a shock for an executive who returned to Stream to command a growth-first strategy that seemed to directly reflect the aggressive style of Murray himself. There are two clues that lead us to believe that Murray was removed – rather than him leaving by choice.

Big Shoes

“It is a blow for Stream in the short-term. Scott has been instrumental in increasing Stream’s prominence and visibility the last few years, and he was a noted and well viewed brand ambassador. His shoes will be big to fill,” said Peter Ryan, Ovum’s global CRM and contact center analyst.

Murray announced in the press release about the appointment of Marinello that he would devote attention to Trillium Capital, a private equity firm, in which he has been closely involved with over the last several years. When asked directly about Murray’s departure, Karen Falcone, a Stream spokesperson shared a statement, which included this comment:
The Board of Directors selected Kathryn Marinello as Chairman and CEO due to her experience and proven track record of leading multi-national companies through phases of rapid growth, and to accelerate our success, while continuing to deliver on our promise of providing innovative service offerings that provide value to your customers.

From a Nearshore Outsourcing perspective, the loss of Murray is definitely significant given his fairly deep knowledge of the region (despite his somewhat off-key remarks on Jamaica’s IT capabilities, which can be heard in our video interview). Murray is one of the chief reasons why Stream is building a presence in Brazil and he’s been a vocal advocate for operational successes in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Two Clues

Murray’s departure looks to have been something that was forced upon him – if you consider the timing and combination of these two factors: His very active trading of Stream shares over the last several days and the fact that he has no forward-moving role with Stream – not as an advisor, or board member or special consultant. (Details of the stock activity are listed at the bottom of this post, courtesy of GuruFocus.com)

So how is does this all shake out in terms of helping or hurting Marinello? “It is really too early to say, and I think that she will need time to prove herself,” says Ryan. “Scott’s shoes are large ones to fill, and it will be interesting to see whether Marinello takes that same approach as Scott in terms of expanding Stream’s delivery location footprint and expansion into new vertical markets.”

CEO Recent Trades:

Buy: Chairman, President and CEO R Scott Murray bought 250 shares of SGS stock on 08/10/2010 at the average price of 4.04. R Scott Murray owns at least 3,829,752 shares after this. The price of the stock has decreased by 2.48% since.
Buy: Chairman, President and CEO R Scott Murray bought 1,000 shares of SGS stock on 08/09/2010 at the average price of 3.92. R Scott Murray owns at least 3,829,502 shares after this. The price of the stock has increased by 0.51% since.
Buy: Chairman, President and CEO R Scott Murray bought 500 shares of SGS stock on 05/27/2010 at the average price of 5.82. R Scott Murray owns at least 3,828,502 shares after this. The price of the stock has decreased by 32.3% since.
Buy: Chairman, President and CEO R Scott Murray bought 200 shares of SGS stock on 05/25/2010 at the average price of 5.5. R Scott Murray owns at least 3,828,002 shares after this. The price of the stock has decreased by 28.36% since.
Buy: Chairman, President and CEO R Scott Murray bought 1,000 shares of SGS stock on 05/21/2010 at the average price of 6. R Scott Murray owns at least 3,827,802 shares after this. The price of the stock has decreased by 34.33% since.

3 comments

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Richard Insider says:

August 23, 2010 at 10:40 am

There is no question that he was forced out. He overpaid when he bought Stream, wasted company funds by buying up warrants, did not deliver on the top line or bottom line and treated employees like crap. He treated the company like his own personal piggy bank by locating the headquarters in his backyard and spending on lavish dinners and offsite boondoggles. He also personally bought warrants on the open market and then used company cash to re-purchase those warrants without properly disclosing this as an insider transaction. The bottom line is that this arrogant jerk finally got what was coming to him. Do not cry too much though, his employment contract which he negotiated with himself provides for a generous severance package.

I feel the impact of says:

August 31, 2010 at 1:16 pm

I currently work for Stream and was an employee of Etelecare and what I can say that ever since the merger I have seen and felt the impact. To say the least.

Joe says:

June 23, 2011 at 2:34 pm

If Scott were to manage his kid's soccer team, he would staff 8 Senior VPs, 16 VP's, and no real coaches to get it done. He would then rent Gillette stadium twice a week for team practices, and have a Dyson Hand Dryer installed in his personal locker room. He would then have Thomas Kincade paint the team picture.