BROOKFIELD, Wis. — Leslie M. Muma, president and chief executive officer of Fiserv, Inc. (Nasdaq: FISV), plans to retire in June 2006.
"I believe that with this announcement -- tied to the creation of a Succession Committee of the Board -- we have taken a path to effect a smooth transition to new leadership over the next 20 months," Muma said in a news release. "I believe firmly that we have an impressive group of strong leaders throughout our organization and I look forward to working with the Succession Committee in the selection process."
According to the release, Norm Balthasar, Fiserv's senior executive vice president and chief operating officer, has asked the board to remove his name from consideration for the CEO position. Balthasar said that with his current plans for retiring in 2008, it would be in the best interest of the corporation to look for a candidate with a longer time horizon for the move to CEO.
Fiserv has grown from a small, privately-owned company of $21 million in revenue in 1984 into a publicly traded S&P 500 company with more than $3.5 billion in revenue, 15,000 clients and 22,000 employees.
