Late last week, Gregory Bontrager, the American Cancer Society's (ACS) president and chief operating officer and an architect of its 3-year "transformation" plan to streamline the organization, tendered his resignation.
His imminent departure was announced to staff and volunteers in an email from his boss, CEO John Seffrin, PhD, who had submitted his own pending retirement this past January following 22 years in the top position.
"Dear Colleagues," Seffrin began, "I'm writing to inform you of a leadership change. As you know, our Board of Directors continues to make progress in its Chief Executive Officer selection process. As part of this natural evolution and anticipated transition to a new CEO in early 2015, Greg Bontrager has tendered, and I have accepted, his resignation as President and Chief Operating Officer, effective Jan. 31, 2015."
The email continued, "Greg's departure further positions the organization for the arrival of a new CEO and provides the maximum degree of freedom and latitude for the incoming CEO to continue transforming and leading the Society into the future. While Greg's departure completes the Transformation chapter he and I began as partners, together with you, I remain absolutely confident and excited about the solid foundation we have built for the future of the organization."
Bontrager thus becomes the third member of the ACS's eight-person executive team to resign in a little more than a year, in addition to Seffrin.
In November 2013, one month before the end of the society's formal reorganization, Greg Donaldson, national corporate vice president for corporate communications, left suddenly.
And this past August, MedPage Today reported that ACS chief revenue and marketing officer Lin MacMaster also resigned suddenly after just 18 months on the job. That position, which replaced two vice presidents and combined fundraising with marketing, is still unfilled.
Such changes often occur during reorganizations. Raul Duany, the ACS's senior VP of corporate communications, told MedPage Today that when he worked for Western Union several years ago, the 160-year-old company had a very similar situation with many top-level executives tendering their resignations when a new CEO was named.
The ACS is seeking to re-establish the society as a single corporate entity and had reshuffled upper management titles as part of the project, but the resignations of MacMaster and Bontrager were surprising nonetheless.
MacMaster had been brought in as part of the transformation, and Bontrager was widely viewed as an architect and overseer of the reorganization.
He was also rumored to have been a contender for the CEO position, although a number of sources indicated he was no longer a viable candidate. Duany said during a phone interview that only the board of directors would be privy to that information.
Duany said that neither Seffrin nor Bontrager were available immediately for comment. He also confirmed that the board hoped to appoint the new CEO early in 2015. There had earlier been an expectation that the announcement would come at this past November's board meeting.
In the email, Seffrin explained that "to maintain our continuity and commitment to ACS Transformation during this interim period and though the transition to a new CEO, I have established an Operating Council comprised of Joe Cahoon, senior executive vice president, Field Operations; Catherine Mickle, chief financial officer, and Dr. Richard Wender, chief cancer control officer."
He added that the operating council would work closely with him and with Carol Richard, deputy to the president and COO, who would act as Seffrin's deputy and that he would remain "fully engaged leading the Society until my CEO successor is in place."
Bontrager joined the ACS in 1988 as director of development for the Michigan Division and has continued through various positions in the organization ever since. He was appointed COO about 7 years ago.
MacMaster left the organization days after announcing that about $40 million in revenue wouldn't be raised from Relay for Life events in 2014 because of a massive decline in participation around the country. That decline began prior to her appointment.
In 2007, ACS reported its best-ever fiscal year with total revenue of $1.17 billion. In 2008, revenue was $1.08 billion, and then dropped below the billion-dollar mark to $897 million in 2009, $956 million in 2010, $954 in 20101, $925 million in 2012, and $885 million in 2013.