Maybe not the best hiring decision....A tenure from August 30th to Dec. 16th. 'Personal reasons' could cover a myriad of reasons including a lot of legitimate ones. That said it could also be used as a blanket statement to cover up a terrible decision. The hire always seeemd to sort of come out of left field anyway as I don't think there was any indication that they were actively seeking to hire a COO.
Per Ricus at the time:
"I am confident that Dave is the right Chief Operating Officer to focus on operational optimization to grow production and enhance value for all our stakeholders."
Apparently not so much. A ready made excuse not to hit AISC. 90 next quarter.