Robert Schriesheim

Robert A. Schriesheim
Born1960 or 1961 (age 64–65)[1]
CitizenshipAmerican
EducationPrinceton University (BS)
University of Chicago Booth School of Business (MBA)
OccupationBusiness executive
SpouseMarried
Children4[2]

Robert A. Schriesheim (born 1960/61) is an American business executive who has been on the board of directors of 11 public companies, including as board chairman.[1] He is chairman of Truax Partners LLC and has partnered with institutional investors leading large enterprises through complex corporate restructuring.[3] According to a 2016 Wall Street Journal article, he has a "history of working in partnership with private equity firms, hedge funds and institutional investors in special situation circumstances".[4][5] According to Barron's[6] and CFO magazine,[7] Schriesheim has "spent most of his career at the high end of the strategy spectrum, embroiled in complex restructurings" focused on capital allocation.[7] He is also an adjunct professor at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he teaches a course titled "Corporate Governance and Activism: The Role of Boards in Critical Decisions".[8]

Career

Schriesheim is on various boards of publicly traded companies including Houlihan Lokey, Skyworks Solutions,[9] a provider of semiconductors to mobile telephone manufactures and Alight Solutions, an employee administration services provider. Schriesheim ws chairman of the finance committee of the board and was credited with leading the corporate restructuring of Frontier Communications and was recognized with the 2021 M&A Advisor’s Annual Turnaround Award for Telecommunications Services Deal of the Year.[10][11]

Until 2016, Schriesheim was executive vice president and chief financial officer of troubled Sears Holdings Corporation[12] which was controlled by chairman and CEO Edward S. Lampert. During Schriesheim time, Sears managed its balance sheet[13] and restructured its asset portfolio with divestments of Lands' End,[14] Sears Canada,[15] Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores,[16] Orchard Supply Hardware[17] and the separation of Seritage Growth Properties,[18] a public REIT. Schriesheim was selected by Eddie Lampert as CFO in 2011 and raised $9 billion of capital through various borrowing and sales — departing Sears in October 2016.[19] Two years after Schriesheim's departure in 2016, Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 Bankcruptcy in October 2018.[20]

Prior to joining Sears Holdings, Schriesheim was senior vice president and chief financial officer for Hewitt Associates until its sale to Aon.[21][22] Prior to Hewitt, Schriesheim was a board member, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Lawson Software.[23][24][25]

Education

He attended the Pingry School, a college preparatory school in New Jersey, graduating in 1978,[26][27][28] graduated from Princeton University with a degree in chemistry and from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with an MBA.[29][30] While at Princeton he was a member of the Princeton Men's Varsity Swim team.[31][32]

Corporate roles

Schriesheim led the corporate restructuring of Frontier Communications as the full time finance committee chairman overseeing the replacement of the board of directors, the hiring of a new CEO, and initiated a new company strategy to deal with high levels of debt. In an interview he claimed this resulted in the reduction of $10 billion in debt from the $17.5 billion at the start of the restructuring while generating $5 billion in market value for the benefit of the bond holders.[3]

He was named as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Sears Holdings in August 2011.[33] Before Sears, he was CFO of Hewitt Associates.[34] Prior to Hewitt, from 2006 to 2011, he held various roles at Lawson Software, including executive vice president, chief financial officer and a board director.[34][35][36] Schriesheim was credited with a turnaround in financial performance.[6]

He was named a board director of MSC Software in December 2007 and was later named co-chairman.[37][38][39] In addition Schriesheim has been a board member of Skyworks Solutions a producer of analog and mixed signal semiconductors since 2006.[40][41]

Earlier in his career he worked at the Brooke Group, a leveraged buyout firm controlled by Bennett S. LeBow who acquired control of Western Union. LeBow installed Schriesheim at Western Union from 1987 to 1990 as a special adviser to CEO Robert J. Amman to help oversee a restructuring of the company. They executed a strategy of redirecting Western Union from being an asset-based provider of communications services into a provider of consumer-based money transfer financial services and divested the company's telecommunications assets.[42]

Early life and family

Schriesheim was raised in Summit, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City, by parents Beatrice and Dr. Alan Schriesheim who were scientists and educators and he has an older sister.[2] His father was[43] the director emeritus and retired CEO of Argonne National Laboratory, and a chemist.[44][45][46][47][48] In 2008 The Schriesheim Distinguished Graduate Fellowship was established at the Eberly College of Science at Penn State University. His mother Beatrice Schriesheim was a long-time high school chemistry teacher committed to improving science education in the United States. She was born in 1930 in Poland and survived the Holocaust by escaping the Nazi invasion in 1939, surviving imprisonment in Siberia and arriving in the US in 1947. Her memoirs, "Bea's Journey", documented her experiences of the Holocaust and life in the United States.[49] They were independently published in 2003 after her death at the age of 73.[43][50]

References

  1. ^ a b "Robert A. Schriesheim Profile – Forbes.com". forbes.com. Archived from the original on June 15, 2009. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  2. ^ a b Tribune, Chicago (9 September 2003). "BEATRICE SCHRIESHEIM, 73". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  3. ^ a b "Value Creation Frameworks – Rob Schriesheim Q&A | FTI Consulting".
  4. ^ Johnson, Kimberly S. (26 May 2016). "Wall Street Journal: Sears CFO to Step Down". The Wall Street Journal.
  5. ^ "A CFO's Strategy: Verticals Within Verticals -". CFO. 12 November 2009. Archived from the original on 2012-08-02. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  6. ^ a b Veverka, Mark. "SAP, Oracle And...Who?". online.barrons.com. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  7. ^ a b McCann, David (12 November 2009). "A CFO's Strategy: Verticals Within Verticals -". CFO. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  8. ^ "Robert Schriesheim". The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
  9. ^ "Skyworks Elects Robert A. Schriesheim to its Board of Directors; Executive Brings Global Corporate Development and Finance Experience in Technology Sector (NASDAQ:SWKS)". investors.skyworksinc.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  10. ^ "Value Creation Frameworks – Rob Schriesheim Q&A | FTI Consulting".
  11. ^ "Robert Schriesheim Joins Frontier Communications Board of Directors" (Press release). 12 December 2018.
  12. ^ "Sears Holdings Names Robert A. Schriesheim Chief Financial Officer – Aug 16, 2011". searsholdings.mediaroom.com. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  13. ^ Corporation, Sears Holdings. "Sears Holdings Reports First Quarter 2015 Results". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  14. ^ "Sears Completes Lands' End Spinoff". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  15. ^ "Sears Holdings Corporation Announces Sears Canada Rights Offering Fully Subscribed – Nov 10, 2014". searsholdings.mediaroom.com. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  16. ^ "Sears Holdings Corporation Completes Separation Of Its Sears Hometown and Outlet Businesses; Receives $446.5 Million In Gross Proceeds - Oct 11, 2012". searsholdings.mediaroom.com. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  17. ^ "Sears Holdings Corporation Completes Spin-Off of Its Interest in Orchard Supply Hardware Stores Corporation – Dec 31, 2011". searsholdings.mediaroom.com. Archived from the original on 2015-06-11. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  18. ^ "Sears Launches Rights Offering for REIT Spinoff". GlobeSt.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  19. ^ Johnson, Kimberly S. (26 May 2016). "Sears Holdings CFO Robert Schriesheim Steps Down". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 7 February 2019 – via www.wsj.com.
  20. ^ "Sears files for Chapter 11 amid plunging sales, massive debt". NBC News. 15 October 2018.
  21. ^ Holdings, Sears. "Sears Holdings Names Robert A. Schriesheim Chief Financial Officer". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  22. ^ The Associated Press (2010-07-12). "Aon Buys Hewitt in Move to Expand Its Consulting Arm". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  23. ^ Veverka, Mark. "SAP, Oracle And...Who?". online.barrons.com. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  24. ^ "Lawson Software Names Schriesheim EVP & CFO | Business Wire". www.businesswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  25. ^ Pollock, Ben Worthen And Lauren. "Lawson Software Signs $2 Billion Deal With Infor, Golden Gate". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  26. ^ "Annual Report on Giving 2008-2009" (PDF). The Pingry School. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-28.
  27. ^ "Pingry School Annual Report" (PDF).
  28. ^ Schriesheim, Robert. "Pingry School Annual Report" (PDF).
  29. ^ "Robert A. Schriesheim: Executive Profile & Biography – Businessweek". Businessweek.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  30. ^ "Robert Schriesheim - Tracked.com".
  31. ^ "Men's swimming and diving" (PDF). June 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-12-15. Retrieved 2015-01-04.
  32. ^ Schriesheim, Robert. "Princeton University Varsity Letter Winners" (PDF).
  33. ^ "Press Releases | Sears Holdings Corporation". www.searsholdings.com. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  34. ^ a b "Hewitt Associates Announces Chief Financial Officer Transition | Business Wire". www.businesswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  35. ^ "A CFO's Strategy: Verticals Within Verticals -". CFO. Archived from the original on 2012-08-02. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  36. ^ "Lawson Software Names Schriesheim EVP & CFO | Business Wire". www.businesswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  37. ^ "HPCwire: MSC.Software Names Robert A. Schriesheim to Board". Archived from the original on 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2011-05-31.
  38. ^ Schriesheim, Robert. "MSC Software Names Schriesheim to Board". Archived from the original on 2012-03-14.
  39. ^ "MSC.Software Executives Resign, Firm Names New CEO - socaltech.com".
  40. ^ "SKYWORKS". www.skyworksinc.com. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  41. ^ "News Releases". phx.corporate-ir.net. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  42. ^ KEPPEL, BRUCE (1989-06-29). "Western Union's Message Changing : The sale of its microwave network ends an era as the firm shifts from being a utility to a service business". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  43. ^ a b "Schriesheim Gift of $250,000 Creates Distinguished Graduate Fellowship in Science — Eberly College of Science". www.science.psu.edu. Archived from the original on 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  44. ^ "1984-1996: Years of Renewal". Archived from the original on January 22, 2011.
  45. ^ "Argonne National Laboratories – History". Archived from the original on 2011-01-22.
  46. ^ Schriesheim, Alan. "Argonne National Laboratories – History: Years of Renewal". Archived from the original on 2011-01-22.
  47. ^ Schriesheim, Alan. "Argonne National Laboratories – History". Archived from the original on 2011-01-22.
  48. ^ "Schriesheim Gift of $250,000 Creates Distinguished Graduate Fellowship in Science — Eberly College of Science". science.psu.edu. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  49. ^ Unknown
  50. ^ "Schriesheim, Beatrice D." tribunedigital-chicagotribune. 5 September 2003. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
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