In 2015 and 2016 Irvine-based Alorica Inc. quadrupled annual revenue to $2.4 billion and employee count to 100,000.
Now it’s reorganizing its management team and hiring four C-suite executives, including replacing its chief financial and chief information officers, who it hired last year.
“We’re at a pivotal point in our journey as we’re being challenged now more than ever to think differently,” Chief Executive Andy Lee said in a statement. “The industry is changing, customer interests are evolving, and even the needs of our workforce are different from when we started nearly 20 years ago.”
Alorica, which Lee created in 1999, is in an industry commonly known as outsourced call centers—the company prefers the term “customer engagement centers.” It employs 94 at its Irvine headquarters and operates in 130 locations in 15 countries and 11 time zones.
A couple of signs point to growing pains. After the acquisition spurt, the company reported revenue fell 4% to $2.3 billion last year.
Moody’s June report predicts 2018 sales will be lower than last year’s, noting that Alorica’s first-quarter revenue fell 7.5% year-over-year because of declines in North American sales. The result followed “weak” third and fourth quarters, Moody’s said, citing softness among telecommunication clients, delays in contract wins, natural disasters in Florida and Texas, and the end of a U.S. Department of Education contract.
Alorica’s loans fell from $1.8 billion at the beginning of the year to $1.1 billion in the second quarter, according to Bloomberg. Standard & Poor’s has rated the debt BB—with a negative outlook, while Moody’s put the debt at B1 and a stable outlook. Both ratings are high-yield bonds, also known as junk bonds.
Alorica’s competitors include Convergys Corp. (NYSE: CVG), Teleperformance (Paris: TEP) and Sykes Enterprises Inc. (Nasdaq: SYKE). Analysts project revenue of the latter two will increase this year.
Bad Reviews
Alorica also continued to rank poorly on Glassdoor.com, where about 3,000 reviewers have given the company a ranking of 2 ½ out of five stars. Last year, Alorica acknowledged the poor rating, saying it’s “not perfect” and that it’s been implementing programs to improve employee satisfaction.
Chief Financial Officer KJ Tjon replaced Cindy Fiorillo, who the company said is “newly retired,” though she only took the job in October. She replaced James Molloy, who assumed the role in 2015 and was honored as a Business Journal CFO of the year last year. The previous CFO, Jack Pollock, had worked for Alorica since its founding.
Tjon has prior experience in turnarounds, working for almost 10 years as a managing director at Alvarez & Marsal LLC, a New York-based global services firm specializing in performance improvement.
Her career has included working as CFO at both Epiq Systems and Hawker Beechcraft Corp.
Chief Operating Officer Greg Haller, who joined in July, fills a position that had been vacant for a few years, a spokeswoman said. He’ll be in charge of operations, client solutions, global business services and marketing communications.
Haller worked for 29 years at Verizon Wireless, where he served in various senior leadership roles, including president of the Western area, and oversaw the enterprise and government markets. He was most recently chief executive of Verizon startup Visible, which offered low-cost, wireless services.
Alorica hired Steve Phillips as chief information officer. About 18 months ago, it named Jonathan Merrell to the role; his LinkedIn page lists him as chief technology officer as of last month.
Phillips was most recently the chief information officer at Avnet Inc., a $17 billion Fortune 500 global company that distributed electronic components. He was inducted into the CIO Hall of Fame in 2015 for his contributions to business-centered transformation and innovation, Alorica said.
A new chief transformation officer position was filled by Bhaskar Menon, who’s tasked with creating a new digital platform via intelligent automation, emerging technologies and process optimization. Menon has more than 30 years of experience at companies like Citicorp and Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch.
The four new officers, in addition to Chief Legal Officer Tania King and Chief Commercial Officer Chris Crowley, will report directly to Lee. Crowley has the longest tenure at Alorica, having joined the company in 2013.
Alorica has about 600 million consumer interactions annually. Its customers include 25 of the Fortune 50 healthcare companies, six of the 10 largest financial institutions, four of the five largest telecommunications companies, and five of the largest retail companies.
