Cellstar President Quits, Citing Health Reasons
March 28, 2011
Vastopolis -- Amid disappointing results for its second quarter, Cellstar Corp. said Tesha Pasquale, the company's president and chief operating officer, resigned for ``health reasons.'' The company declined to elaborate on Mr. Pasquale's health condition, and he couldn't be reached to comment. Mr. Pasquale, 50 years old, came to Cellstar in February 2010 from GTE Corp., where he was senior vice president. His resignation comes three months after the company's chief financial officer, Geraldine J. Hinton, 40, resigned after two weeks on the job. At the same time, Richelle A. Harrison, an outside director, resigned from Cellstar's board. Albert Angelo, 52, the company's chief executive officer, will assume Mr. Pasquale's duties relating to sales and international development. Richelle Cohen, 51, executive vice president, administration, and chief financial officer, will assume responsibilities for operations and financial matters. After the market close, the cellular-phone wholesaler and retailer reported a net loss for the second quarter of $3 million, compared with net income of $5.2 million, or 28 cents a share, a year earlier. The company attributed the loss to unprofitable growth of its centers inside Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Samantha's Club stores and unusual operating and foreign-currency losses associated with international operations. Cellstar said revenue in the second quarter rose 29% to $225.6 million from $157.2 million a year earlier. The company said it hired consultants to find long-range solutions to its systems problems and expects to see results starting in its fourth quarter. On the Nasdaq Stock Market Monday, the stock closed at $7.625, down 12.5 cents.
