Todd Mitchell, CFO and COO of RiceBran Technologies has resigned to pursue another opportunity. The company has appointed Bill Keneally to serve as interim CFO.

RiceBran has its head office in Tomball. It converts raw rice bran into stabilized rice bran and derivative products such as rice-based proteins.

The company has revenues of $42 million. It hasn’t made an operating profit for at least 15 years. The company has a market capitalization of $6 million as well as net debt of $6 million.

After its most recent quarterly results, the company announced it was undergoing a strategic review of all possible alternatives to generate improved returns to its shareholders.

Mr. Mitchell was appointed CFO in July 2019 and added the COO role in December 2021.

Mr. Keneally, who is based in Atlanta, is actually employed by CXO Partners, a consulting firm that specializes in placing C-suite executives on an interim basis. The agreement is on a month-to-month basis. RiceBran will pay CXO $45,000 a month.  The services covered include assisting in the preparation of SEC filings and maintaining the data room.

SEC filing – 8-K RiceBran CFO

Jeff Glajch has been appointed the new CFO at Orion Engineered Carbons. He replaces Lorin Crenshaw, who resigned in November to become CFO at Kansas-based Compass Materials. Bob Hrivnak, who had been the interim CFO, reverts back to being the Chief Accounting Officer.

Orion has its head office in the Kingwood area, though it is technically registered in Luxembourg. The company manufactures Carbon black, a powdered form of carbon used in consumables and additives for polymers, printing inks and coatings. It has 14 production sites around the world and revenues of $1.5 billion.

The company went public in 2014 and has a market capitalization of $1.2 billion.

Mr. Glajch joins from Graham Corporation, a New-York based manufacturer of equipment for energy, defense and petrochemicals, where he had been CFO for 13 years. Graham appointed a new CEO in August 2021, who was part of a business acquired earlier in 2021. In November 2021 Mr Glajch announced he would be retiring and leaving sometime in the second quarter.

In early February, the stock of Graham plunged by 30% following a surprise quarterly loss as a results of issues in the legacy business. Mr. Glajch received a severance of 1.5 times base salary of $325,000.

No compensation was disclosed for Mr. Glajch. His predecessor at Orion had a base salary of $421,000.

SEC filing – Orion Engineered CFO

Lorin Crenshaw, CFO at Orion Engineered Carbons SA, has resigned to become CFO at Kansas-based Compass Materials. Bob Hrivnak, the company’s Chief Accounting Officer will serve as the interim CFO while the company conducts a search for a replacement.

Orion has its head office in the Kingwood area, though it is technically registered in Luxembourg. The company manufactures Carbon black, a powdered form of carbon used in consumables and additives for polymers, printing inks and coatings. It has 14 production sites around the world and revenues of $1.4 billion.

The company went public in 2014 and has a market capitalization of $1.14 billion.

Mr. Crenshaw has been the CFO at Orion for exactly two years. Prior to that he spent many years at Albemarle, a chemical manufacturer. Compass Materials is another chemical manufacturer that has about the same revenues as Orion but a market capitalization twice as large.

When he joined Orion, Mr. Crenshaw received a $180,000 sign-on bonus that was paid over two years. However all the executives got a reduced bonus payout for 2020 because EBITDA did not hit target.

At Compass, Mr. Crenshaw will receive a substantial increase in base salary (from $421,000 to $537,000) and a one-time bonus of $780,000 (most of which is to be paid in January 2022).

Mr Hrivnak joined Orion in 2020. He was previously the CFO for just over a year at Spokane-based Clearwater Paper. At that company he was hired by a new CEO who lasted even less time! Prior to that, he worked for a number of companies including Fluor and Tyco.

SEC filing – Orion CFO departure

Sean Douglas, the CFO of Huntsman Corporation, has announced he is resigning to take a senior leadership position with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His last day will be July 1, 2021.

Huntsman, a chemicals company with revenues of $6 billion, is based in The Woodlands. However, it was founded in 1970 in Utah by Jon Huntsman, Sr. The Huntsman family is Mormon and just last month, it was announced that James Huntsman, his son (but not an employee of the company), was suing the church, accusing it of spending members’ tithes meant for charity on commercial purposes.

Mr. Douglas has been the CFO since January 2017. He joined the company in 1990, though he left the company between 2012-2015 to perform charitable services for the Church.

The company has initiated a search for a new CFO and is evaluating both internal and external candidates. The company expects to appoint a new CFO before July.

SEC filing – Huntsman CFO resigns