THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 26, 1996 TAG: 9609260473
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 33 lines
Hobbled during the past year by heavy losses, auto-finance company TFC Enterprises Inc. announced a management shakeup Wednesday that includes the departure of its chief executive officer.
Norfolk-based TFC, whose The Finance Co. subsidiary provides credit to high-risk buyers of used cars, said former chief executive George R. Kouri and three other senior officers will take early retirement on Sept. 30. Kouri, who joined TFC when it was formed in 1977, has been its CEO since early 1993.
All four departing officers have employment contracts that run through 1999, and their retirements are part of an effort to reduce the company's operating costs, TFC said in a prepared statement.
TFC said it will spend $1.8 million during the current quarter to settle the officers' employment agreements. However, it expects to save $4 million before taxes on salaries and benefit expenses that it would have paid, the company said.
TFC said its chairman and founder, Robert S. Raley Jr., will assume the chief executive's duties and take over the investor-relations and lender-relations tasks handled by the departing chief financial officer. Raley, who had stepped out of the company's daily operations several years ago, returned to full-time work late last year.
Other departing TFC officers are chief marketing officer Joseph R. Becka, who joined the company in 1981; chief operating officer Preston K. Gnagey, who joined in 1988; and chief financial officer Charles M. Johnston, who arrived in 1994. by CNB