Richard J. Geruson’s experience spans CEO roles at Lexmark, Phoenix Technologies, and VoiceSignal; and executive positions at Nokia, IBM, Toshiba, and McKinsey & Co. He is currently CEO and Chairman of GBSI which provides global Board services and investments to public and private companies across 3 continents.
Previously, as CEO of Lexmark, the multi-billion dollar Fortune-500 IBM spinoff with over 10,000 employees, he grew Sales faster than any time in the previous 10 years. Simultaneously he executed deep process reengineering, transforming this imaging technology business from negative EBITDA and high debt to a positive $303M EBITDA and healthy debt levels.
Prior to Lexmark, as CEO of Phoenix, Mr. Geruson achieved consistently high EBITDA ranging from 20% to 25% year-over-year for 6 years straight in the company’s business of firmware and software for Notebooks, Tablets, PCs and IoT (Internet of Things) devices.
Before Phoenix, as CEO of VoiceSignal, Mr. Geruson pioneered AI Voice Recognition and Voice Generation software for mobile phones. He increased shareholder value over 10-fold, culminating in the sale of the company for 12 times its Revenue.
Previous to VoiceSignal, as SVP at Nokia, Mr. Geruson grew Nokia's Americas business almost 10-fold to $6.5 billion, propelling the mobile phone business from 5th place market share to 1st place in the U.S., and 1st place in the world for the first time in its history. As a result the stock price catapulted to more than a 7-fold increase in less than 3 years.
As one of the youngest VP/GMs in IBM’s history, Mr. Geruson transformed IBM’s Networking business worldwide by transitioning it from exclusively Direct Sales to Indirect Channel Distribution, thereby expanding sales by almost 50%.
As VP at Toshiba, Mr. Geruson realigned product design and reprioritized engineering activities to reflect U.S. market requirements, doubling market share from 11% to 22%, and spurring the notebook computer business from 5th place to the #1 share position.
Mr. Geruson completed 3 graduate programs from the University of Oxford, including a PhD in Economics. He was appointed to the Harvard Business Faculty, Research Division, and attended Harvard Business School as a visiting scholar where he wrote the highly regarded book, A Theory of Market Strategy, published by Oxford University Press, 1992.