The chief executive of Western Digital Corp. said Thursday he’s stepping down just a year after ascending to the top spot at the Lake Forest disk drive maker.
Arif Shakeel is stepping down in January, according to Western Digital. John Coyne, the company’s president and chief operating officer, is set to take over.
Shakeel plans to serve as an adviser to Western Digital through June.
Coyne took over the president’s title from Shakeel in May. A company spokesman said Coyne had proven himself quickly and was ready to take over.
At first blush, the move raises more questions than it answers.
A year ago, some company watchers were surprised when Shakeel took over for longtime boss Matt Massengill, Western Digital’s 45-year-old executive chairman.
Speculation at the time was that Shakeel could have been courted to run another company and was given the top job to stay at Western Digital.
Now, a year later, 51-year-old Shakeel is stepping back.
A spokesman declined to elaborate on the situation except to say the timing was right for Shakeel after 20 years with Western Digital.
Like Shakeel and Massengill, Coyne is a Western Digital veteran. He served as executive vice president and chief operating officer before adding the president’s title in the spring. He was senior vice president of worldwide operations from 2000 to 2005. Coyne, an Irishman, first joined Western Digital in 1983.
Coyne had a key hand in integrating operations acquired from Read-Rite Corp., a maker of drive parts.
One thing’s for sure: Shakeel isn’t leaving for performance reasons.
Western Digital reported results for the September quarter on Thursday, in which profits rose 49% from a year earlier to $103 million.
Sales were up 25% to $1.3 billion.
Both measures beat expectations.
Shares of Western Digital were up about 4% in afterhours trading.
