Dive Brief:
- Printer maker Xerox said Tuesday that its CFO, Xavier Heiss, plans to retire in early 2025 after a long career at the company spanning more than three decades.
- Effective Feb. 1, Heiss will be succeeded by Mirlanda Gecaj, vice president and chief accounting officer at Xerox, according to a press release.
- “I’m proud to welcome Mirlanda Gecaj as our new CFO, a decision that reflects the strength of our talent pool and the effectiveness of our succession planning,” Xerox CEO Steve Bandrowczak said in the release. “She is the ideal leader to step into this crucial role and will continue to help evolve our culture, achieve our financial goals, and drive success for our clients.”
Dive Insight:
Gecaj, 50, is entitled to an annual base salary of $550,000 in her new role, according to a securities filing. She’ll also be eligible to receive an annual long-term incentive award for 2025, with a target grant date fair value of $2 million, it said.
She has served as Xerox’s chief accounting officer since May 2022. Before that, she worked at Element Solutions, a global diversified specialty chemicals company, where she served as vice president of global shared service strategy from 2019 to 2022 and head of internal audit from 2017 until 2019.
Heiss took the finance reins at Xerox in January 2021 after serving at the organization in various finance and sales management roles in Europe and the U.S., including as CFO of its Americas Operations. Before joining Xerox, he held sales roles at Renault and Procter & Gamble.
The announcement comes on the heels of recent financial challenges at Norwalk, Connecticut-based Xerox.
The technology company reported $1.6 billion in revenue for the second quarter, a 10% drop compared with the year-earlier period. This was preceded by a 12.4% year-over-year revenue decline in the first quarter.
Total company revenue for the full year of 2023 reached $6.89 billion, down 3.1% compared with the prior year.
In January, Xerox announced that it was cutting its workforce by 15% as part of a “new operating model and organizational structure.” The company also said it was redesigning and realigning its executive team to support the new operating model.
