DXC Technology's Mike Salvino Out As CEO

As DXC president and CEO, Mike Salvino has helped steer the company through big changes including negotiations for a potential acquisition by a private equity company. Had that acquisition occurred, Salvino would have been eligible for more than $63 million in payments. He’s being replaced by a DXC board member in the interim.

DXC Technology Wednesday said that its president and CEO had vacated his role Dec. 18, months after a potential acquisition of the global IT solution provider fell through.

DXC board member Raul J. Fernandez is taking over from Mike Salvino, who had been DXC president and CEO since 2019 and who has served as chairman since 2022. Salvino will step down from his chairman role immediately, but will remain with DXC until March 31 of next year to help with the transition to a new CEO.

Salvino, 57, is the second top DXC executive to step down in the last couple months. In September, Ken Sharp left DXC as executive vice president and chief financial officer and, as of Dec. 11, holds the same role at Reston, Va.-based security firm Peraton.

No reason was given on why the board of directors of Ashburn, Va.-based DXC, ranked No. 10 on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500, is replacing Salvino with Fernandez. DXC did not respond to a CRN request for more information by press time.

Fernandez, who like Salvino is 57 years old, is an experienced top executive in the IT channel. He founded Proxicom, an early provider of interactive professional services during the dot-com era, where he worked from 1991 to 2001 before jumping to a one-year stint as North American CEO of Dimension Data. In 2004, Fernandez became CEO and chairman of ObjectVideo Labs, an early developer of computer vision technology that was acquired in 2017 by Alarm.com.

Fernandez currently serves on several boards of directors, including that of Broadcom. He has been on DXC’s board since August 2020.

He’s also serves as the vice chairman and co-owner of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, a private partnership that owns the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals, the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Washington Mystics, the National Basketball Association’s Washington Wizards and Monumental Sports Network, a regional sports network.

DXC said its board of directors will look at both internal and external candidates to take over as permanent CEO.

The change at DXC’s executive suite comes at the end of a tough year for DXC.

In September 2022, at least one private equity company was in talks to acquire DXC. However, DXC in March said it terminated the acquisition discussion.

DXC in March was hit with an $8 million fine by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to the solution provider making misleading disclosures related to its non-GAAP financial performance between 2018 and 2020.

DXC in November also reported that revenue for its second fiscal quarter 2024 fell by 3.6 percent year over year to $3.44 billion, while its non-GAAP earnings fell 5 cents year over year to 70 cents per share.

The company’s stock has not fared well either. Shares have plummeted about 76 percent since a high of $96.38 was achieved in September 2018, nearly a year after it was spun out from Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

DXC Wednesday also named David Herzog, the company’s lead independent director, as its new chairman.

DXC in a regulatory filing said that Salvino is entitled to receive severance pay in accordance with his employment agreement and termination without case. For termination without cause, according to a regulatory filing this past June, Salvino was eligible for $13.2 million in payments, which includes a $9.7 million cash severance benefit.

Had an acquisition of DXC occurred, Salvino would have been eligible for $63.9 million in cash- and equity-based payments in the event of change in control of the firm, according to that same U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.