NEW YORK (AP) - Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer is stepping down at the end of the year. He will be replaced on Jan. 1 by James Smith, the chief operating officer at one of the world’s largest news and financial information companies.
The change in command announced Thursday comes after a series of management shake-ups in the past six months, as Thomson Reuters Corp. tries to turn around its struggling markets division. That operation, which mainly serves financial institutions, merged with the company’s professionals division in September.
Glocer, 52, was the first American to lead Reuters Group when he became CEO in 2001. He became CEO of Thomson Reuters in 2008 when Canada’s Thomson family bought Reuters. Glocer was the last link to the old Reuters management team in the merged company.
The Thomson family owns about a 55 percent stake in the company through the Woodbridge Co.
“Tom will be remembered as the individual who turned around Reuters 10 years ago, led the company to growth and guided its sale to form Thomson Reuters,” company Chairman David Thomson said in a statement.
This will be Smith’s second promotion in three months. In late September, he was named chief operating officer in a move that anointed him as Glocer’s heir apparent.
But Glocer told Reuters news service at the time of Smith’s last promotion that he intended to “stay for a good long time to fix and thrive under this business.”
In a Thursday statement, Glocer said he had achieved his goals. “By the end of this year, the organizational, strategy and budget work I have been leading will be complete, and the transition plan I launched last summer will have achieved its objectives,” Glocer said. In addition to giving up the CEO job, Glocer is resigning from Thomson Reuters’ board of directors at the end of the year.
Smith, 52, has a long relationship with the Thomson family. He joined the Thomson Newspaper group in 1987, where he remained until 2000 when that business was sold. He then moved to the Thomson Corp., where he worked his way up to chief operating officer leading up to the Reuters deal.
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