CEO Of Solution Provider CTG Out After Just 15 Months, To Be Replaced By Business Unit Leader

CTG CEO Cliff Bleustein resigned after only 15 months as CEO and has been replaced by the longtime head of CTG's largest business unit.

The Buffalo, N.Y.-based company – No. 65 on the 2016 CRN Solution Provider 500 – said Friday that 26-year company veteran Bud Crumlish was tapped due to his extensive knowledge of the IT services industry and deep expertise around the health-care and strategic staffing sectors. Crumlish's first day in the CEO role was Thursday, with Bleustein resigning by mutual agreement Tuesday.

"The board felt that CTG would be best served with a leader that knew our people, our culture, and our customers across all of our industries," a CTG spokesman told CRN. "[It] wanted to appoint a CEO that would allow the organization to move forward immediately and ideally without the ramp-up time required for external candidates."

[RELATED: The 35 Most Highly Compensated Channel CEOs In 2015]

Crumlish said CTG is looking to expand its revenue and profit contribution from high-volume corporate users of external IT talent, as well as expanding the company's business in the European government and financial services markets. Crumlish also said CTG will continue delivering comprehensive health-care solutions to its payer, provider and life sciences clients in the U.S. and Europe.

"With a strong management team, proven offerings targeted to the health-care and other vertical markets, and a solid IT staffing model that has proven successful over the years, I am confident we will overcome challenges, grow revenue, and improve profitability," Crumlish said in a statement.

The company has not performed very well since Bleustein joined CTG from Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Services, No. 10 on the 2016 CRN Solution Provider 500, in April 2015.

Sales fell 6 percent in 2015 to $369.5 million, while net income fell 37.1 percent to $6.51 million, or 41 cents per diluted share, as the company suffered from headcount reductions at two of its largest staffing customers and the continued tail-off of legacy electronic medical record implementations.

Preliminary results for the second quarter aren't looking much better from a revenue perspective, with year-over-year sales expected to tumble another 11.9 percent to $83.5 million. Net income per diluted share, though, is expected to climb from 3 cents to 8 cents.

CTG's stock opened Friday up 1.7 percent to $5.53 per share. The CEO change was announced before the market opened.

Bleustein will receive a $1.01 million lump sum payment equal to his base salary and cash-based incentive compensation, as well as an $82,192 payment equal to the base salary he would have received in the 60 days following his resignation, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Crumlish joined CTG in 1990 and since July 2001 has served as senior vice president and general manager of Strategic Staffing Services (SSS), CTG's largest business unit. In that role, Crumlish has overseen business development, delivery, sales and recruiting for many of CTG's largest customers, as well as combining health-care and strategic staffing sales efforts over the past year.

"Bud is very client-focused, developing solid relationships and delivering reliable, high-quality service," the CTG spokesman told CRN. "He's played a key role in CTG's ability to not only acquire, but retain, some of our largest clients such as IBM, Lenovo and other Fortune 500 companies."

From 1996 to 2001, Crumlish was financial controller for CTG's SSS division, responsible for business plan development, financial reporting and analysis, pricing, contractual compliance, and policy implementation. Prior to that, Crumlish managed general accounting and was the financial controller for CTG's IBM national team.

Prior to joining CTG, Bleustein was the chief medical officer and global provider solutions leader for Dell Services. He also spent five years as the director of the health industries advisory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he focused on sales and delivery of PwC's consulting services to health-care providers.