Masco taps Sznewajs
For a few months there, it looked like Masco Corp. might be satisfied with all the aisle space it had claimed at your local Home Depot. From 1998 through 2002, the $9.42 billion company - maker of Delta faucets and Merillat cabinets, among other top-selling home and building products - had averaged eight acquisitions a year in its quest for growth. But the pace slowed this year, as Masco limited its dealmaking to a couple of divestitures that moved the company out of the lock business.
In September, though, Richard Manoogian, chairman of the Taylor, Mich., company, made an announcement that may mark a return to acquisitions: the promotion of John Sznewajs to vice president and head of business development. Having run $6 billion worth of Masco deals in his previous role as managing director in business development, Sznewajs, 35, now succeeds R. Hamilton Schirmer, 63, who will continue to handle e-business development and other assignments.
As befits a good dealmaker, Sznewajs is active outside the company, involved with community groups as well as professional ones (he's on the board of the Detroit chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth). For networking, Manoogian's not a bad role model: He has a seat on the Ford Motor Co. board, among other connections. -
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Glanton's at Exelon now
People come to corporate development jobs from many different directions, but it's hard to think of a more unusual route than the one traveled by Richard Glanton. Since May, Glanton has been the senior vice president of corporate development for Exelon Corp., the big Chicago-based utility. But before that he was a prominent and sometimes controversial lawyer in Philadelphia, one of the city's Republican movers and shakers who, for more than a decade, was touted as a potential mayoral or gubernatorial candidate. He was a longtime partner at law firm Reed Smith LLP and served on the boards of several corporations.
Most of all, Glanton became known for his troubled stint as president of the Barnes Foundation, owner of one of the world's most valuable private art collections, which ended in 1998 with his ouster. Glanton was at the center of a bitter dispute over the art collection's disposition, rooted in the terms of the bequest that set up the foundation. An audit conducted after his dismissal by the Barnes board accused him of questionable relationships and financial missteps. He declined to comment for this article.
At Exelon, Glanton had previously been a director. He was on the board as well of predecessor company Peco Energy and was cited by Exelon CEO John Rowe as having been "fundamental in the success of the merger between Unicom and Peco Energy" that formed Exelon three years back.
In his new post, Glanton, 56, reports to Exelon's general counsel. He's been busy. In October, Exelon exercised an option to buy the remaining 50% it didn't own in nuclear power plant owner AmerGen Energy Co., a deal that snatched the AmerGen stake from FPL Group Inc. In early November, Exelon agreed to buy electricity distributor Illinois Power for $2.23 billion in cash and assumed debt. Glanton has been involved in both deals. - Matt Miller
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Doing deals with the Donald
Call him the dealmaker's dealmaker. Scott Butera, a former UBS investment banker, arrived at Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc. late last summer to work for Donald Trump as executive vice president and director of corporate and strategic development. Within a few days the pair began rolling the dice, pursuing a license for a riverboat gambling facility in the Chicago suburbs. A couple of weeks after that, Trump said it was seeking a contract to operate a proposed riverboat casino in French Lick, Ind.
At UBS, Butera worked with Trump on a $475 million high-yield offering that helped refinance his Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J., as well as the Trump Casino Hotel in Gary, Ind. Before signing with UBS in 2000, he was lead banker on lodging and gaming for Credit Suisse First Boston for four years.
The boats would be a departure from Trump's signature properties such as the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and Trump 29 Casino in Palm Springs, Calif. But Butera, now working in Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, likes the odds. "We are positioned to become a leading brand in the near term," he says. - Jonathan Berke
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Now strategizing for Nokia, Matti Alahuhta
Nokia Oy's September decision to compress its 10 business units into four will have a number of interesting consequences - starting, perhaps, with the boost to the high-growth units the overhaul is designed to produce. Almost as intriguing, however, is the centralization of control over the wireless technology giant's dealmaking activities that will take effect along with the rest of the changes on Jan. 1.
On that date, 26-year company veteran Matti Alahuhta, now head of the mobile phone division, will step into the new position of chief strategy officer. Alahuhta, who will continue to report to Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila, will oversee corporate strategy, research, venturing, partnering and M&A activities that had been dispersed throughout the business units. He will now have a slew of dealmakers reporting to him, including the company's head of M&A, Peter Castren.
The company's biggest shakeup in five years also includes the promotion of Rick Simonson (a former Bank of America investment banker who was previously head of customer finance for the Finnish company) to chief financial officer.
The news came against a backdrop of slowing growth in Nokia's core mobile phone business, and as its shares lagged the rest of the market. The new structure is meant to fuel the expansion of Nokia's consumer mobile multimedia services and its wireless networking units, targeted at service providers and enterprises. It's also expected to make the company's finances easier for outsiders to follow.
The changes may be a harbinger of more acquisitions, which have slowed to a crawl at Nokia in recent years. Despite possessing $10 billion in cash and one of the high-tech industry's largest market capitalizations, Nokia has purchased only two companies - gaming company Sega.com Inc. and server software designer Eizel Technologies Inc. - in the past two years. - Joshua Jaffe
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