Diebold To Revamp Corporate Structure To Improve Profitability

Effective immediately, Walden W. O’Dell, Diebold chairman and chief executive officer, is assuming the role of president and chief operating officer and taking direct responsibility for the company’s global operations. Eric C. Evans, president and chief operating officer, is leaving the company and has resigned from its board of directors. In addition, a new financial self-service business unit combining product and software development, manufacturing, procurement and marketing will be formed into a single global organization. The new business unit will be headed by Thomas W. Swidarski, who assumes the title of senior vice president, financial self-service group. Global manufacturing and engineering functions now report to Swidarski in this new role. “Our recent financial performance has been unacceptable, and these organizational changes are a major step toward improving our direction,” said Walden W. O’Dell, Diebold chairman and chief executive officer. “Given the current challenging environment, I am assuming direct responsibility of the company’s operations, and I am personally committed to taking immediate action to improve our performance. Our company has significant depth of leadership and this new organizational alignment allows us to take swift action that puts us on the right path. I wish to thank Eric Evans for his contributions to Diebold during his time here and wish him well in his future endeavors.” The new corporate structure is designed to better focus Diebold’s resources on the dynamic challenges and needs of the global financial self- service marketplace. The objectives and key benefits of this change include: – An integrated approach to improving margins in the company’s financial self-service business – Closer integration of product and market strategies – Shared goals and aligned priorities to be more responsive to customer needs – The ability to deliver new products to market more efficiently and cost – effectively – A comprehensive approach to improved customer satisfaction. “These efforts better position Diebold for future growth, bringing together all facets of our product and service families into seamless business units,” O’Dell added. “We believe this new organizational structure will enhance our responsiveness to customer and market demands, increase our ability to deliver innovative solutions to the industries we serve and, in turn, create greater value for our shareholders.” As a result of the new organization, each product and service line within Diebold — financial self-service, security and election systems — is now established as a global business unit. Sales and service operations for both financial self-service and security will remain unchanged and continue to be structured in two organizations focused on North America and International markets. Each of these organizations will report to O’Dell. The global security business unit, headed by Dennis Moriarty, will also report to O’Dell. Swidarski will retain oversight responsibility of Diebold Election Systems (DES). However, day-to-day management of this business will be handled by David Byrd, vice president of operations for DES.