Key Points
The switch will take effect in mid-September.
The move caught investors off guard.
Since Monday, it seems investors haven't been too eager to hold on to Karman's (NYSE: KRMN) stock. The space and defense company announced a C-Suite departure that caught the market by surprise.
Investors aren't fond of such developments, hence the stock's week-to-date decline of 11% as of early Friday morning, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
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High-level departure
Just after market close on Wednesday, Karman announced that CFO Mike Willis is stepping down. Effective Sept. 14, his post will be taken up by Chris Boynton. Although the company described this move as "the result of deliberative succession planning process," such a process hadn't previously been divulged to the public.
Image source: Getty Images.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Boynton is a seasoned executive with years of experience in the defense industry trenches. He most recently served as CFO of science and technology researcher Battelle, and previously held several senior managerial roles as a finance executive at what is now RTX.
In the press release detailing the transition, Karman wrote that Boynton has supervised a modernization of Battelle and led the financial operations of large business units at RTX.
Watch the C-Suite
It isn't all that unusual for a company recently listed on the stock exchange -- Karman made its market debut in February -- to go through some changes. After all, no matter how disciplined and dedicated a management team is, steering a publicly traded company is quite a different job than operating a private one.
Personally, I wouldn't buy into or sell Karman on this executive change alone, unexpected though it might have been. But I'd keep an eye on that C-Suite; further departures in the near future might indicate instability at the top and/or conflicts that could spill over into the company's operations.
Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Karman and RTX. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.