Accenture’s (ACN) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Pierre Nanterme resigned with immediate effect on health grounds. The company appointed CFO David Rowland as the interim CEO and named KC McClure, who has been the head of Accenture’s finance operations, as CFO. Nanterme will continue at Accenture as an advisor to CEO.
Nanterme, who had served 36 years in Accenture, became the CEO of the company in early 2011 and Chairman in February 2013. During his eight-year tenure as CEO, he had significant involvement in moving Accenture’s focus to high-growth areas in the New – digital, cloud and security-related services.
In July 2016, Nanterme announced that he had undergone surgery after diagnosed with colon cancer and is moving to the next phase of the treatment.
The newly appointed Interim CEO David Rowland served as the finance chief of the New York-based firm from July 2013. He also joins the Board as one of the directors. The Board also named Marge Magner as the non-executive chair.
“I know that David’s significant involvement in developing and delivering our growth strategy to rotate our business to new, high-growth areas of digital, cloud and security — and his tenure as a highly respected senior leader and developer of talent — will make this transition seamless,” said Pierre Nanterme.
Accenture’s shares have dropped 8% in the last 12 months and the stock opened in the red on Friday and continued to trade in the negative territory during the first hour of the trading session.