22 May 2012

Cree’s CFO Kurtzweil resigns; McDevitt made interim CFO

LED chip, lamp and lighting fixture maker Cree Inc of Durham, NC, USA says that John Kurtzweil has resigned as executive VP-finance & chief financial officer in order to pursue other opportunities.

Michael McDevitt has been appointed CFO on an interim basis. McDevitt joined Cree in 2002 as corporate controller and previously served as interim CFO in 2006 during an earlier transition. He has also served as director of financial planning and as director of sales operations.

Cree has commissioned a search for a replacement through executive search consultants Russell Reynolds Associates. To assist with the transition of his responsibilities, Kurtzweil plans to continue as a Cree employee until 15 June. “The past six years have been personally rewarding,” says Kurtzweil. “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,” he adds.

“We appreciate John's contributions in helping grow Cree from $400m in revenues in fiscal 2007 to over $1bn in annualized revenues today,” says chairman & CEO Chuck Swoboda. “He has built a strong finance team and a foundation for future growth.”

Swoboda also commented on Cree’s previously announced business outlook for the fiscal quarter ending in June: “We are encouraged with our progress in growing the business through the first half of the quarter. At this point, we remain on track with our targets,” he adds.

Tags: Cree LEDs

Visit: www.cree.com