Patriarch, son reduce their roles in computer services firm

10:43 PM CDT on Friday, September 24, 2004
By CRAYTON HARRISON / The Dallas Morning News

Ross Perot Jr. dropped CEO from his title at Perot Systems Corp. Friday in a surprise move, giving up the founding family's operational control of the company.

Peter Altabef, the company's general counsel, will succeed Mr. Perot as president and chief executive. Mr. Perot, 45, will remain active with the Plano computer services firm as chairman, succeeding his father, 74, who becomes chairman emeritus.

The shift at the top allows the Perots to keep guiding the strategic direction of the company while leaving day-to-day decisions to others. Mr. Altabef, 45, has been a Perot Systems executive for 11 years, since joining the company from the Dallas office of law firm Hughes & Luce LLP.

"We have a young leadership team, and we needed to keep our leaders excited that they could become president," said Mr. Perot Jr., 45, whose tenure as CEO lasted four years. "You don't have to be a member of the family to run the firm."

Ross Perot Sr. founded Perot Systems in 1988 after leaving his first company, Plano-based Electronic Data Systems Corp. The elder Mr. Perot is credited with inventing the computer services industry.

The younger Mr. Perot is also chairman of the real estate investment company he founded, Hillwood Development Corp. He took the Perot Systems reins from his father in 2000, earning relatively positive performance reviews from many on Wall Street.

Under Mr. Perot Jr., the company has learned to behave more as an efficient, structured corporation, analyst Joe Vafi of Jefferies & Co. said earlier this year. "If you rewound the clock 10 years, when the business was being managed much more actively by Ross Sr., at that point in his career he wasn't as focused on a regimented organizational structure," Mr. Vafi said. Perot Systems shares have risen about 26 percent since Mr. Perot Jr. took over the company, though they struggled in the technology industry's recession. Shares closed Friday at $13.71, up 4 cents.

Mr. Altabef has worked on several big projects at the company. He helped develop Perot Systems' strategy for business process services, in which the company runs routine back-office functions for its clients. That line of business represents about one-fifth of Perot Systems' sales.

The younger Mr. Perot and Mr. Altabef have completed work on a three-year strategic plan for the company. Now Mr. Altabef must implement it. "We have a very strong plan, and we're going to deliver to it," he said. Economic recovery will help lift the company's sales, he said. Mr. Altabef has not been a highly visible figure outside the company. In 2002, he spoke to investors and analysts regularly during a brief inquiry by California officials into Perot Systems' ties to energy companies.

"I'm sure he's a good executive," said Ben Trowbridge, CEO of the Trowbridge Group, a computer services advisory firm. "He's obviously somebody the family trusts."

But other executives, such as consulting head and author Jim Champy, have been in the public eye far more often, delivering lectures and meeting with investors. Perot Systems' chief operating officer, Brian Maloney, was a quieter presence. He resigned last week.

Mr. Altabef, originally from New York, got his law degree from the University of Chicago and his bachelor's degree in economics from Binghamton University, State University of New York. Mr. Altabef's wife, Jennifer Burr Altabef, is a partner at law firm Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal LLP. The Altabefs have two children, ages 10 and 14. Del Williams, a longtime Perot family associate, succeeds Mr. Altabef as general counsel.