At Ferguson, change at the top

Newport News, Va.-based plumbing wholesale giant Ferguson has eliminated the position of president and CEO. Former president and CEO John Stegeman, a company vet of 24 years, is out of a job. Now working in two roles is Frank Roach, CEO of Wolseley North America, who added the Ferguson job duties to his own on Aug. 31.

The Newport News Daily Press quoted Ferguson spokeswoman Denise Vaughn explaining that John Stegeman's position was cut "to reduce duplicate Wolseley CEO roles within North America."

According to Stegeman's executive biography, now removed from the Ferguson Web site, he served as senior VP and COO before being named CEO in September 2005. Stegeman won three internal President's Awards for Achievement in the late '90s and early '00s.

New president and CEO Roach is responsible for all of Wolseley's North American business, and he has been with the company for 33 years.

Wolseley has been restructuring in recent months. Its Stock Lumber subsidiary recently emerged from Chapter 11, with Wolseley owning only 49% of the pro dealer. Wolseley also replaced CEO Chip Hornsby with Ian Meakins, the former CEO of Travelex Holdings. The company has laid off 9,000 workers over the last 13 months.