Investor Artisan urges Adecco to change mind on CEO appointment

ZURICH, May 12 (Reuters) - A major shareholder in Adecco , Milwaukee-based fund manager Artisan Partners, is calling on the staffing firm to change its mind over a new chief executive it announced last week, in comments made to Swiss newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft.

Shares in Switzerland's Adecco tumbled after it said CEO Patrick de Maeseneire was leaving and would be replaced by Alain Dehaze. Finance chief Dominik de Daniel also decided to leave after failing to land the CEO job.

Artisan is the second major shareholder in Zurich-based Adecco to criticise the firm for not appointing de Daniel to replace de Maeseneire.

"We have called on the chairman to reverse his decision and appoint de Daniel as CEO," Finanz und Wirtschaft quoted Artisan fund manager Daniel O'Keefe as saying.

Artisan, which owns 3.9 percent of Adecco according to Swiss securities disclosure, is also critical of the firm's chairman, Rolf Doerig, who is board head at insurer Swiss Life.

"It is more important that de Daniel becomes the new CEO than it is that Doerig remains chairman," O'Keefe is quoted as saying.

Neither Adecco nor Artisan could immediately be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Katharina Bart; Editing by Mark Potter)