Cree, Inc. (CREE: Quote), a manufacturer of light emitting diodes for wireless and power applications, said Tuesday that John Kurtzweil has resigned as executive vice president-finance and chief financial officer, effective May 21 to pursue other opportunities. Kurtzweil is joining Extreme Networks (EXTR: Quote)as chief financial officer and senior vice president.
Cree has appointed Michael McDevitt as CFO on an interim basis. The company has initiated search for a replacement through Russell Reynolds Associates.
Kurtzweil will continue as a Cree employee until June 15 to assist with the transition of his responsibilities.
According to Kurtzweil, "The decision to leave Cree was a very difficult one for me as the past six years have been personally rewarding. At this point in my career, however, I decided to move to Extreme Networks, a smaller firm where I can have a more hands-on role in growing the business."
Kurtzweil helped Cree grow from $400 million in revenues in fiscal 2007 to over a billion dollars in annualized revenues now, with zero debt. He also built a strong finance team.
Kurtzweil has over 15 years of experience as the CFO of publicly-traded companies and has led strategic planning cycles, M&A teams, and finance operations He has worked as CFO with Cirrus Logic and ON Semiconductor in the past.
Extreme Networks said Kurtzweil would succeed Interim CFO Jim Judson on June 29 and that Judson would continue as a consultant during a transition period.
Mike McDevitt joined Cree in 2002 as corporate controller and previously served as interim CFO in 2006 during a previous transition. He has also served as Cree's director of financial planning and as director of sales operations.
Further, Chuck Swoboda, chairman and chief executive officer of Cree, said the company's business progress through the first half of the quarter ending June has been encouraging and it remains on track with its targets.
Cree said last month that it expects fourth-quarter net income in a range of $0.04 to $0.10 per share and adjusted income of $0.20 to $0.26 per share. On average, 32 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect earnings of $0.23 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
CREE, which closed at $29.09 on Monday, is declining 4.6 percent in pre-market trading.
In pre-market trading, EXTR is adding over 3 percent to its previous close of $3.60.
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by RTT Staff Writer
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