WEST GREENWICH, R.I. — Lottery giant has named Howard S. Cohen its new chief executive officer. He replaces temporary CEO W. Bruce Turner, whom the company said will stay on as chairman of the board.
Last July, GTECH’s board accepted the resignation of CEO and chairman William Y. O’Connor, and Steven P. Nowick, president and chief operating officer. The board had called for the men’s resignations primarily due to dissatisfaction with GTECH’s stock performance and displeasure with the manner in which the discovery of some defective software was handled in the United Kingdom.
Cohen most recently was president and CEO of Skokie, Illinois-based information service company Bell & Howell. He also served as president, CEO and chairman of Toronto-based Sidus Systems, a computer systems service company. He also held executive positions at Peak Technologies Group and Office Systems, held senior management positions at U.S. Sprint and Arrow Electronics, and spent 15 years at Xerox.
The news of Cohen’s appointment follows last week’s announcement that GTECH plans to cut 80 jobs, 20 of which would be eliminated from its Rhode Island workforce. The company also said it was taking a $4 million to $6 million charge, related to job cuts, for its fourth quarter ended February 24. GTECH has been trimming jobs and cutting costs since last August as part of what it described as a restructuring program. It recently completed a “value assessment,” which it said resulted in the elimination of $24 million to $26 million of annual operating expenses.
