Callaway Golf’s year-long search for a new leader ended yesterday when the company named George Fellows as its new president and CEO. Fellows is best known as the former head of Revlon, and is credited with turning that brand around in the late 1990s.
Fellows replaces William Baker, who had been the company’s interim CEO since Ron Drapeau was forced out last year. Fellows is the first person to lead Callaway Golf who never actually worked alongside company namesake Ely Callaway, who died in 2001. Past top executives like Don Dye, Chuck Yash and Drapeau were all groomed to succeed Ely Callaway, while outgoing interim CEO Baker served on the company’s board of directors under the late entrpreneur.
Fellows brings with him a reputation as a master marketer and brand-builder. He’ll have plenty of big golf brands to work with at Callaway, including Odyssey, Top-Flite, and Ben Hogan.
The biggest question now is whether Callaway Golf will remain as a publicly held company (traded on the NYSE under the symbol ELY) or whether it will be sold and taken private. Rumors have swirled that the company is up for sale and weighing bids, though company officials have said repeatedly and recently that no firm offers are on the table.
So it is possible that naming Fellows as CEO is Callaway Golf’s statement that it is moving forward as a publicly traded company and leaving any possible sale offers behind. Of course, it is also very possible that Fellows was brought aboard to help energize and consolidate the company’s brands in an effort to make the package more attractive to potential buyers.
Fellows has yet to comment publicly beyond generic statements of being excited to start his new job. Time will tell what direction Callaway Golf takes. But naming Fellows as CEO will allow him the time to put his stamp on the company’s marketing plans in time for the fast-approaching 2006 golf equipment buying season.
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