Weatherford International announced that Mark A. McCollum, president, CEO, and a director, has left the company, effectively immediately. Karl Blanchard, executive vice president and COO, and Christian Garcia, executive vice president and CFO, will form the Office of the Chief Executive and will oversee the day to day operations and report directly to the board. The company said it has initiated a search to identify a permanent president and CEO and will work with a leading executive search firm to assist in the process.
The company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with roughly $10 billion of financial support in December with 6.2 billion of outstanding funded debt, secured $2.6 billion in exit financing facilities, including a $450 million revolving credit facility, secured a $195 million letter of credit facility, and secured over $900 million of liquidity.
On 15 April, the company announced its intention to delist from the New York Stock Exchange and cited the following actions to further cut costs.
Temporary pay reductions of 20% for management and to the board of directors' annual cash retainer
Total headcount reductions of 38% across North American operations and 25% in international
Furloughs and pay reductions for remaining employees in the US and selected international locations
Reducing planned capital expenditures by approximately 50% in 2020 vs. 2019 levels
In its first quarter report Weatherford’s international business, which comprised more than 70% of its revenue over the quarter, grew 2% year on year with growth across the Middle East, Russia, and Asia. However, North American revenue declined 23% year on year. McCollum said, " … we have more than doubled the cost savings actions that were underway going into 2020 and we will continue to adjust as required by market conditions. We are implementing a combination of structural reductions, headcount and pay reductions, furloughs, facility closures, capital expenditure reductions, and have consolidated our geographic, product line, and support organizations.”
Commenting on the leadership changes, chairman of the Weatherford board of directors Thomas Bates, Jr. said, "Karl and Christian have demonstrated that they have the experience and ability to assume these expanded responsibilities. We are confident in their leadership of the company during this interim period as we conduct the search for a chief executive officer. On behalf of the board, we thank Mark for his contributions to Weatherford. We wish him the best."
Karl Blanchard was named executive vice president and COO in 2017. Blanchard previously served as the COO for Seventy Seven Energy where he was responsible for the drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and rental tool business units, as well as key support functions. Before that he spent more than 30 years at Halliburton where he was responsible for many of the company's flagship product service lines, including production enhancement, cementing, testing, and subsea. He also served as country vice president of Halliburton Indonesia. Blanchard holds a BS degree in engineering from Texas A&M University.
Christian Garcia joined Weatherford in January as executive vice president and CFO. Garcia was previously executive vice president and CFO at Visteon Corp. He also served as acting CFO of Halliburton where he held a variety of leadership positions of increasing responsibility. Earlier in his career, Garcia held financial and planning roles with Landmark Graphics, Bell and Howell, and San Miguel Corp. in the Philippines. He served as board member and chairman of the Audit Committee for Keane Group from 2017 to 2019. Garcia holds a bachelor's degree in business economics from the University of the Philippines and a master's degree in management from Purdue University.