Clear Channel Communications has filled the CFO post being vacated by Randall Mays with Tom Casey. He had been CFO of Washington Mutual, which was seized by federal regulators last year in the largest bank failure in US history.
“Tom has a stellar track record of meeting long-term financial and operating goals in his previous positions, and is just the type of leader who will help bring Clear Channel to new heights. His extensive knowledge and experience in the finance field will be an enormous asset to our company and we’re happy to welcome him to Clear Channel,” said President and CEO Mark Mays.
“I am pleased to join Clear Channel and assume leadership of the company’s financial function. Our top priority will be to build shareholder value as we optimize management of this unique set of assets. I am excited to be working with Mark Mays and the management team to position Clear Channel to benefit as we emerge from this economic slowdown,” said Casey.
His new title, effective January 1st, will be Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mark Mays, who is stepping down as CFO, will continue as Vice Chairman of Clear Channel Communications.
RBR-TVBR observation: It’s easy to make jokes about hiring a CFO from a bank that had gone through a public and huge collapse, but we’ll reserve judgment until we see how Casey does in the new post. He does, indeed, have experience working under extreme financial duress and, as noted before, Clear Channel is playing a challenging game of chess with the vulture funds who want to force it into Chapter 11. Also, Casey had worked prior to WaMu at GE Financial and Coopers & Lybrand, so he has solid experience.
