Home Depot CFO to Retire After 18-Year Tenure

By Tatyana Shumsky

Home Depot Inc. said long-serving finance chief Carol Tomé will retire later this year and named an internal successor to the CFO post.

Ms. Tomé plans to retire on Aug. 31, having served as CFO of one of the world's biggest home-improvement chains since May 2001. She joined the company in 1995 and has directly reported to all five of Home Depot's chief executives during her tenure.

Richard McPhail, currently senior vice president of finance control and administration, will be promoted to executive vice president and CFO following Ms. Tome's retirement. Mr. McPhail joined the Atlanta-based retailer in 2005 and has been responsible for the company's financial plans, as well as managing its profit and loss on a daily basis, a spokesman said.

"Developing top talent and ensuring seamless succession planning is a hallmark of our company," said Home Depot Chief Executive and President Craig Menear.

Ms. Tomé is leaving Home Depot having helped the company increase shareholder value by more than 450% during her tenure, Mr. Menear said.

Ms. Tomé was instrumental in guiding the company's turnaround strategy during the recession. Home Depot has reported higher annual sales and profit in each of the past eight years, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Home Depot shares slipped 0.8% in after-hours trading on Tuesday. The stock closed the day up 0.8% at $203.70 a share.

Home Depot reported fourth-quarter net income of $2.34 billion, up 32% from a year earlier. Net sales were $26.49 billion, up 11% from a year ago. But the company disappointed analysts and investors with weaker-than-expected gains in comparable sales, which rose 3.2% for the quarter ended in February, missing forecasts of a 4.5% increase.

Ms. Tomé's planned departure from Home Depot will also end one of the longest-running CFO tenures. The average term of a finance chief at a Fortune 500 or S&P 500 company was 5.1 years, according to the 2018 Crist|Kolder Volatility Report.

Still, Ms. Tomé's 18-year stint as CFO falls well short of Jeff Julien's 32-year tenure as finance chief of Raymond James Financial Inc., which concluded with his retirement last month.

Write to Tatyana Shumsky at tatyana.shumsky@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 30, 2019 19:02 ET (23:02 GMT)

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