The announcement comes on the same day the company was to have its annual shareholder’s meeting, which has now been postponed. As of now, there’s been no comment from Zimmer, who was not only the executive chairman, but the face of the brand. He appeared in commercials, telling customers “You’re gonna like the way you look. I guarantee it.”

The board said in the statement that they want to postpone the shareholder’s meeting so that they can re-nominate the current directors without Zimmer. The statement also said the board “expects to discuss with Mr. Zimmer the extent, if any, and terms of his ongoing relationship with the Company.”

The news comes as a shock to analysts, who say that booting a founder just isn’t done.

“This is very rare to fire a founder. Founders are generally entrenched in the company,” said Eleanor Bloxham, CEO of The Value Alliance, a board advisory firm.

Zimmer started the company in Texas with one small storefront and reportedly didn’t even have a cash register; instead, he used a cigar box.

Speaking at an analyst conference, McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson said that he’s lost 20 pounds over the last year by simply exercising. He revealed that he still eats McDonald’s every day though.

McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants are generally blamed for obesity in America, but Thompson is trying to deflect those accusations. Instead, he says that it’s all about the exercise. He points to Europe where obesity rates are nowhere near as high saying that Europeans walk a lot.

Thus, he concludes that it’s important to have a balance between what you eat and how often you actually get out to exercise. You could totally eat McDonald’s every day and not gain a pound if you consistently work it off with regular exercise. You could also see yourself losing weight if you managed portions correctly, and didn’t overeat.

Of course, some people think that this doesn’t absolve McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants of any responsibility. A 9-year-old girl named Hannah took Thompson to task during a shareholder meeting about the company’s marketing of “junk food” to children. He responded by saying that the company doesn’t sell junk food and that it’s always working to introduce healthier options into the menu.

So, what can we take away from all of this? It’s not so much about the food we eat, but rather about how much we eat of it and how often we exercise. McDonald’s, like any other food, isn’t inherently bad for you as long as you don’t eat too much of it. Eating it every day may be going a bit too far, but you could do it with the proper exercise regimen backing it up.

[h/t: The News Tribune]

Mozilla announced today that Kovacs will be stepping down as the CEO of the non-profit later this year. He won’t be gone entirely, however, as he plans to stick around as a member of the Board of Directors.

“The past two and a half years have been pivotal in the evolution and rapid growth of Mozilla,” said Gary Kovacs, CEO. “I am very proud of our accomplishments as a team. In our mission to empower the next two billion Web users, we’ve made great advances in desktop and mobile and in our ability to lead at the pace of the market. With this solid foundation and a strong team in place, this is the right time for me to announce the transition plan and a vote of confidence in the abilities of the leadership team. I am grateful for the privilege of leading this organization during this period of rapid growth, and I look forward to helping guide Mozilla’s impact on the future of mobile.

Kovacs stepping down isn’t the only executive change happening at Mozilla over the next few months. The non-profit also announced that Mitchell Baker and Brendan Eich have expanded their roles to Executive Chair and Chief Technology Officer & Senior Vice President of Engineering respectively.

Jay Sullivan will be moving up from SVP of Products to the position COO. He will still be directly involved with Mozilla’s product strategy and the Firefox OS development team.

Harvey Anderson, Corporate Secretary for Mozilla, is now also the SVP of Business and Legal Affairs. In the new role, he will “have oversight for the apps marketplace initiative and continue to lead mobile and strategic partnerships.”

Finally, Li Gong is Mozilla’s SVP of Mobile Devices. As the title implies, he’ll be in charge of global Firefox OS adoption as the handsets featuring Mozilla’s mobile OS launches later this year.

Over the next few months, Mozilla will be on the lookout for its next CEO. It will interesting to see who the non-profit ultimately ends up choosing as they will be in charge of Mozilla as it attempts to stake its claim in the ever growing mobile market.

“The SEC’s report of investigation confirms that Regulation FD applies to social media and other emerging means of communication used by public companies the same way it applies to company websites,” says the SEC.

The SEC didn’t recognize company websites as proper disclosure channels until 2008.

“One set of shareholders should not be able to get a jump on other shareholders just because the company is selectively disclosing important information,” said George Canellos, Acting Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “Most social media are perfectly suitable methods for communicating with investors, but not if the access is restricted or if investors don’t know that’s where they need to turn to get the latest news.”

This ruling stems from an SEC investigation into the Facebook activities of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. Back in December of 2012, Hastings ran afoul of the SEC when he made a post on Facebook announcing that the company had topped 1 billion hours of streaming per month.

The SEC claimed the post violated Regulation FD, as the disclosure didn’t appear in an official filing or a press release. Hastings had not disclosed to investors that he would be using his Facebook page to report important information.

Just a couple of months ago, Hastings made it clear that he wouldn’t be backing down on this, as he felt that he did nothing wrong.

“I wasn’t setting out to set an example. I was sharing something to these 200,000 people,” Hastings said. “I’m not going to back down and say it’s inappropriate. I think it’s perfectly fine. Sometimes you’re just the example that triggers the debate.”

In clarifying these rules the SEC has also cleared Hastings, saying that they recognize that there had been market uncertainly about Regulation FD and social media. Thus the need for the clarifications.

“The report of investigation explains that although every case must be evaluated on its own facts, disclosure of material, nonpublic information on the personal social media site of an individual corporate officer — without advance notice to investors that the site may be used for this purpose — is unlikely to qualify as an acceptable method of disclosure under the securities laws. Personal social media sites of individuals employed by a public company would not ordinarily be assumed to be channels through which the company would disclose material corporate information.”

So, Reed Hastings and others like him can avoid all the hoopla if they simply make it clear to investors that their Facebook or Twitter profiles will be used for divulging key information. As long as that fact is known, companies, CEOs, COOs, or whoever have the right to post investor relations materials on social sites.

Glassdoor has just put out their annual Highest Rated CEOs list, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tops it with a 99% approval rating.

Glassdoor’s annual list comes from voluntary survey participation from employees of each company that visit the site. According to Glassdoor, no CEO could even make the list unless they had at least 100 ratings over the past year. Apparently, Glassdoor logged over 500,000 different ratings from employees in 2012.

The survey is simple – just one question: “Do you approve or disapprove of the way your CEO is leading the company?”

Rounding out the top five are Bill McDermott & Jim Hagemann Snabe of SAP, who also garnered a 99% approval rating. Next is Dominic Barton of McKinsey & Company (97%), followed by Jim Turley of Ernst & Young (96%) and John Schlifske of Northwestern Mutual (96%).

Other notable names from tech that made the list include Google’s Larry Page, who came in 11th with a 95% approval rating. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos took 16th with a 93% rating and Dell’s Michael Dell came in 49th with an 81% rating.

Last year’s winner, Apple CEO Tim Cook, fell to #18. Last year, he had a 97% approval rating, compared to this year’s 93%.

According to Kilar, Andy Forssell will be tapped as acting CEO when he steps down at the end of March.

Forssell is currently the Senior Vice President of Content at the company who signed on in 2007.

“In his time at Hulu, Andy has accelerated the growth of the content business from just two content providers in 2007 to more than 410 today, and has led the expansion into original programming. Andy brought to Hulu more than a decade of experience at Siebel Systems and Oracle Corporation where he served in a number of leadership roles including product development, customer care, datacenter operations and supplier management for their hosted CRM software-as-a-service businesses,” says Hulu’s about page.

Kilar sent this letter to the Hulu team, and it’s been cross-posted to the Hulu blog:

Team -

As you all know, I will be departing Hulu at the end of this quarter. I wanted to share the news that Andy Forssell will be stepping up to lead Hulu as acting CEO after I depart later this month. You know Andy well; he’s been a critical senior executive and has been here from the start of this great adventure. Andy exemplifies the Hulu culture and has been central to Hulu’s journey, helping to grow this company from 2 content partners and no revenue to over 450 content partners and approximately $700 million revenue in 2012. In his role, Andy has built strong relationships with many of our Board members. Andy has the Board’s strong support in leading the team during this important time.

Disney and News Corporation are currently finalizing their forward-looking plans with Hulu, and the senior team has been working closely with them in that process. Once the plans are finalized, a permanent decision will be made regarding the CEO position.

As I mentioned to you all at the beginning of this year, Hulu’s focus remains on delivering a fantastic 2013 for customers and shareholders. Hulu is well on its way, with new records being set in Q1 across both revenue and subscriber additions. The unwavering focus on delighting Hulu’s customers is clearly showing up in the outputs of the business.

Jason

Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky and Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis were tapped to head the “Office of the Chief Executive” and serve in his place until a replacement is found.

And it looks like that replacement will come from outside the company.

Bloomberg quotes two sources close to the matter who say that Groupon’s search for the next CEO is focusing on outside candidates. The board will hire a recruiting firm in the next couple of weeks and expect to have a new CEO in place within 3 to 6 months.

Only if that search fails to find a suitable replacement will the company’s board consider someone from inside the company, says the report.

Groupon has already ruled out both Lefkofsky and Leonsis as possible CEOs.

Just before Groupon announced that Mason was out as CEO, the company reported disappointing earnings. Groupon missed Wall Street estimates, posting a net loss of $81.1 million for Q4 although revenue was up 30%.

Upon Mason’s departure, Groupon stock rose sharply from $4.53 to as high as $5.10 in after-hours trading. Currently the stock sits as $5.64.

“I am thrilled to join the distinguished team of journalists across the worldwide platforms of CNN,” said Zucker. “The global reach and scale of the CNN brand is unparalleled in all of news. Outside of my family and the Miami Dolphins, there is nothing I am as passionate about as journalism. I spent the most rewarding years of my career as a journalist, and it’s where I look forward to spending many more. I am grateful to Phil Kent for this opportunity, and I’m excited to return to daily newsgathering and compelling storytelling in a place that values those above all else.”

Zucker began his career as a researcher for NBC Sports, and was named executive producer of NBC’s Today show in 1992. From there, he rose through NBC to eventually become president and CEO of NBC Universal in 2007.

Turner Broadcasting System CEO and Chairman Phil Kent announced Zucker’s appointment.

“Jeff’s experience as a news executive is unmatched for its breadth and success,” said Kent. “He built and sustained the number-one brand in morning news, and under his watch NBC’s signature news programming set a standard for quality and professionalism. As a programmer, a brand-builder and a leader, he will bring energy and new thinking to CNN. I couldn’t be happier to welcome him or more excited about what he’ll accomplish here.”

(Photo credit: David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons)

On June 22, ICANN announced that Fadi Chehadé was to become the next CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Since the announcement, it was expected that Chehadé would take on the role of CEO starting October 1. That’s why it’s a surprise that he has announced his rise to the position of CEO starting today. He relieves Akram Attalah of his duties as interim CEO who will now return to his prior position as COO.

“I have spent the past two months asking myself and many others from all over the Internet community worldwide the same questions,” said Chehadé. “How can ICANN work better with its stakeholders to bring all interested parties to the table to debate and agree how to improve the DNS? How can we ensure that all global citizens can share an open Internet which is sustainable and resilient?”

Chehadé says that his plan puts stakeholders first. He will be amassing a team to help speed up Internet engagement across the world. He will also be expanding the roles of his key officers to help oversee the new initiatives from ICANN including the creation of multiple new gTLDs.

ICANN will also be establishing many of its top brass in European regions to help “strengthen ICANN’s international engagement at all levels.” This includes Tarek Kamel, senior adviser to the CEO, who will be in charge of developing an effective strategy to boost Internet penetration in Africa.

“I’ve spent the summer putting the right team in place – looking deep within ICANN and beyond to find the best mix of talents to help me to fulfill ICANN’s mission,” said Chehadé. “Frankly I am impressed and humbled by what these diverse leaders bring to the table. I’ve been fortunate to have great support from the ICANN Board as well as the staff and I know that we will be able to build upon the organization’s many achievements.”

He will also be making many other departments report directly to him. Most corporations would rather have a supervisor below them to take care of the smaller details, but it looks like Chehadé is up for the challenge. Here’s hoping the new management can help prevent more incidents like those that plagued the gTLD registrations earlier this year.

Reuters quotes a very generic Samsung response to the issue:

“Choi is the best candidate who can chart Samsung through the global economic crisis and ever-intensifying competition,” Samsung said in a statement, citing an unnamed executive. “Under Choi, Samsung plans to pursue innovative changes.”

It’s easy to see why Samsung would want the person overseeing the company’s component division in the role of CEO. Samsung is the first smartphone manufacturer to show signs that it can truly compete with Apple in the mobile market. Kwon was in charge of the company’s rise as the supplier of many Apple device components. Recently, Kwon announced that Samsung was receiving “huge” orders for the company’s new flexible OLED screens, which it announced at this year’s Consumer Electonics Show in January. Kwon will continue to oversee the Device Solutions division as CEO.

Though Samsung has not officially announced the reasons behind the change in leadership, Reuters reports that Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee is involved in a public family feud, and that Lee is currently grooming his son Jay Y. Lee to take over control of Samsung. An analyst quoted by Reuters states that Choi, as the head of corporate strategy, will be helping to train Jay Y. Lee, who currently serves as Samsung’s chief operating officer, for his future leadership role.

(via Reuters)
(Photo courtesy Samsung)