E-Trade chairman to leave, Lawson named successor
E-Trade Chairman Frank J. Petrilli to leave, will be replaced by Rodger A. Lawson
NEW YORK (AP) -- E-Trade Financial Corp. said Friday it is replacing its Chairman Frank J. Petrilli after its shareholder meeting in May.
Petrilli had been chairman and interim CEO since August, after the online financial services provider's abrupt ouster of former CEO Steven Freiberg.
E-Trade has been struggling to recover from bad housing investments. It also has lost business as individual consumers pulled money out of the stock market. Faced with less trading activity, E-Trade has focused on managing costs and reducing risk. In January, E-Trade named banking industry veteran Paul Idzik as its new CEO.
E-Trade will appoint Rodger A. Lawson, 66, as its new chairman, assuming he is re-elected during the annual shareholder meeting May 9.
Petrilli told the board he didn't want to stand for re-election. In a statement he said the decision represents his "other business and time commitments."
"I believe that Paul Idzik is well equipped to lead E-Trade forward and that Rodger Lawson will make an excellent chairman," he said.
In addition to Petrilli, board member Ronald Fisher also will not stand for re-election to the board.
In January, E-Trade reported a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss as low trading volume and a one-time charge to retire debt cut into the online brokerage's results.
Shares of the company fell 4 cents to $11.27 in morning trading.
