Ousted Microsoft CIO Stuart Scott Scores COO Post at Mortgage Lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker
From adversity to opportunity: Scott's new job is good for him and for CIOs in general.
CIO — Just three weeks after Microsoft announced that it had canned its CIO Stuart Scott for "violating company policies," Scott appears to have risen like a phoenix from the ashes of controversy. Today he started a new job, as a COO no less, with Taylor, Bean & Whitaker. The privately held mortgage lender announced before the American Thanksgiving holiday last week that it had hired Scott as its new COO. Scott has not relocated from his home in Bellevue, Wash., to Ocala, Fla., where Taylor, Bean & Whitaker is based.
Scott has rapidly rebounded after his very public ouster at Microsoft. Three executive recruiters CIO.com interviewed for our article on recovering from high-profile terminations said they believed Scott would land on his feet after the Microsoft controversy. They just didn't think it would happen so quickly.
"This had to be in play before [Scott left Microsoft]," says Reynold Lewke, a recruiter with executive search firm Egon Zehnder International. "A search takes a minimum of six to nine weeks if it goes perfectly."
Though Lewke doesn't have firsthand knowledge of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker's recruitment of Scott, he is familiar with such processes and their duration. "I think it would have been in process before then, and [Taylor, Bean executives] felt comfortable continuing with the process [after Scott was terminated]," he adds. "Whoever was making the decisions didn't feel that the announcement from Microsoft was enough to dissuade them [from hiring him]."
Executives at Taylor, Bean & Whitaker could not be reached for comment, but Lee Farkas, the chairman of the company who noted Scott's "impressive" credentials in the press release announcing the new COO's hire, is clearly excited to have a brand-name executive on board: "Having someone of his caliber join us further solidifies our ability to deliver innovative technology solutions."
CIOs Who've Moved into the COO Role
| Who | Company | When |
|---|---|---|
| Alex Munn | Pacer International | Mar. 2005 |
| Joe Eckroth* | New Century Financial | Jan. 2006 |
| Greg Carmichael | Fifth Third Bancorp | July 2006 |
| Bill Vass | Sun | July 2006 |
| Christopher McDaniel | Blue Frog Solutions | Aug. 2006 |
| Elbert Simpson | PSEG | Dec. 2006 |
| Wendy Cebula | VistaPrint | Jan. 2007 |
| Kathryn McQuade | Canadian Pacific | June 2007 |
| Gilles Bouchard | Opnext | Nov. 2007 |
* Eckroth has since left New Century to be CIO of Hertz
Source: CIO.com reporting
Industry Switches Are Possible
Scott's move to the mortgage lending industry and his appointment to the COO post may seem unusual given that he's never previously been a COO nor does he have any financial services industry experience, but recruiters say it's not unprecedented.
