Goodyear has replaced its chief executive, Mark Stewart, with board member Roger Wood as interim CEO, and a filing with regulators shows the company ended his employment. The tire maker's Form 8-K, filed Monday morning, Nov. 9, classifies the exit as a termination "other than for Cause" under its executive severance plan. He also resigned from the board.
The change took effect Sunday, Nov. 8. Goodyear's announcement says Stewart "will step down" and that the board will work with an executive search firm to find a permanent CEO. The only reason it gives is the board chair's view that this is "the right moment" to change leaders and speed up the company's progress.
Goodyear shares traded at $4.27 at 9:43 a.m. Eastern, down about 2%, according to Nasdaq.
What the interim CEO will be paid
Wood, 64, has been a Goodyear director since July 2023, and before that he ran Dana Holding from 2011 to 2015 and was co-CEO of Tenneco from 2018 to 2020, after 26 years at BorgWarner.
The filing gives him a salary of $310,000 a month and, on top of that, a monthly grant of restricted stock worth $1 million, paid for five months or until a permanent CEO is hired, whichever comes first. Housing, car and travel allowances are included, along with reimbursement of some legal fees.
At five months, that adds up to about $1.55 million in salary and $5 million in stock.
The filing leaves out Stewart's severance amount.
Three leadership changes and a strategic review
The CEO swap is Goodyear's third senior move in two weeks.
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| Oct. 27 | Jerome Rouquet, Visteon's finance chief, named CFO starting Dec. 1 |
| Nov. 1 | Chief legal officer David Phillips also becomes head of enterprise transformation |
| Nov. 8 | Wood replaces Stewart as interim CEO and president |
Since earlier this year, a board committee has been reviewing all of Goodyear's operations. The release says the work covers "further optimizing the company's business mix and footprint," along with efficiency gains and spending on new products. Goodyear named no specific plans and said it would update investors only when the board decides more disclosure is appropriate or required.
Phillips' Nov. 5 filing set his salary at $850,000 a year for the expanded role. The company has about 60,000 employees and manufacturing at 46 sites in 19 countries, by its own count.
