Charlie Eitel, partner form consulting firm
Former Simmons CEO to help middle-market companies
David Perry -- Furniture Today, November 9, 2009
 Charlie Eitel |
The former CEO of Simmons has formed a consulting business here with a former top banker at Wachovia Securities. Eitel & Armstrong aims to assist middle-market companies in creating and realizing long-term value, the principals say.
"We are very excited to engage with our clients and believe that with our complementary backgrounds and experiences, we have a special opportunity to help them create long-term value," Eitel said. "We will be thoroughly committing to a handful of companies that are facing transition and change."
Eitel became one of the bedding industry's best-known executives in his tenure at Simmons, where he was CEO from January 2000 until October 2008, and will remain vice chairman through December. But his leadership at Simmons has become a controversial topic, the subject of a recent story in The New York Times that called him "an executive who ruled from afar and walked away rich." Eitel said the story was an attack on his character.
Eitel is partnering with Jeff Armstrong, who was a senior banker at Wachovia Securities from July 1999 to October 2008. He held leadership posts in investment banking, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged capital and private equity coverage. Before he joined Wachovia, Armstrong was a banker at Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.
"Our product is experience, judgment, coaching and ultimately the advice we provide to our clients," Armstrong said. "Our job is to listen, assess the situation, provide independent counsel, and to grow companies by creating sustainable value."
The partners said they will conduct business with a long-term, principle-centered approach and will work with management and stakeholders to help their customers achieve their objectives and potential.
Services offered by the partnership include assessment and strategic reviews, asset management, serving as an executive partner, and providing crisis or interim management.
The company is based at 401 N. Tryon St., 10th floor, Charlotte, N.C. A Web site at www.eitelandarmstrong.com is under development. Eitel can be reached at ceitel@bellsouth.net.
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Eitel launches consulting firm
Nov 16, 2009
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