Donald Murray, founder of Santa Ana-based accounting services company Resources Connection Inc., stepped down as chief executive to become executive chairman and to make way for the second boss in the company’s nine years.
Director Thomas Christopoul has taken over as chief executive.
Before joining Resources Connection’s board nearly three years ago, Christopoul was chief executive of a Cendant Corp. division and earlier held positions at Altria Group Inc.’s Nabisco and PepsiCo Inc.
The company called the shift part of Resources Connection’s succession planning.
Murray, who helped start the business as a unit of Deloitte & Touche LLP, oversaw Resources Connection’s public offering in 2000 and its growth for much of this decade.
The company, which provides accountants who serve as internal auditors for businesses, saw a surge after scandals at Enron Corp. and others illustrated the need for separating internal and external auditing of financial results.
In 2007, Resources Connection stumbled by missing Wall Street expectations, in part after offering more vacations to employees in a bid to boost retention as demand for accountants grew.
In the past year, the company’s shares are off about 35% with a market value of $900 million. Resources Connection’s shares were off about 6% at the close of New York trading on Tuesday.
