Carlo Ferro, CFO of STMicroelectronics, has been appointed COO of ST-Ericsson, ST’s ailing wireless IC operation. ST’s Chief Accounting Officer Mario Arlati will take over as CFO of ST.
"I have been working closely with Carlo in his role as ST's chief financial officer for the past six years," says ST CEO Carlo Bozotti, "I am confident that his knowledge, drive for results and determination will play a fundamental role in the turnaround of ST-Ericsson.”
ST’s press release says that Ferro was responsible for closing nine fabs in his nine years as ST’s CFO, and for master-minding the loss-making memory jv Numonyx which was sold off to Micron.
He has focused ST management on meeting financial ratios like ROI, RONA, ROE etc as a way of keeping the business on track.
However the strategy has been cited as a cause of ST’s slow growth. ST had sales of $7.1bn in 2003 and sales of $9.7bn in 2011.
ST-E’s problems are: the collapse of Nokia its best customer; an obsoleting product line which costs ST-E $1:50 for ever sales $; a new product road map which is very late; no announced source of 28nm fab; about twice as many people as its revenues can support.
It’s not hard to guess which of these five problems will be the prime focus of Ferro, an accountant.
