Alca-Lu CFO Pesquidoux out, Tufano takes over

The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem. The second, third, fourth and fifth steps involve launching a broad strategic review, shaking up management, selling asset stakes to raise cash and taking renewed aim at your biggest competitors. At least that's the way Alcatel-Lucent is doing it, and the company has taken many of those actions in the three months since Ben Verwaayen took charge as CEO. The latest management change, announced today, is the departure of CFO and long-time Alcatel employee Herbert de Pesquidoux, who will be replaced by former Solectron finance chief and interim CEO Paul Tufano.

Pesquidoux said he was leaving the company to pursue other opportunities, though he also was an obvious remaining link to the company's past and particularly to the past year of financial shortcomings. He has been CFO for only one year, since predecessor Jean-Pascal Beaufret left in the fall of 2007, and according to The Wall Street Journal, arguably did a better job. Tufano, however, has 30 years of experience in international finance.

The next step in Alcatel-Lucent's recovery, likely to occur sometime next month, reportedly will be the unveiling of the overall strategic review. The company is continuing talks to sell a 20.8 percent stake in its Thales defense electronics unit to aerospace group Dassault Aviation, and just this week rolled out enhancements to solutions for large enterprises, a move seen as taking direct aim at Cisco Systems.

For more:
- The Wall Street Journal covers [1] the CFO move