Diebold makes changes at the top

NORTH CANTON, Ohio-Board chairman and chief executive officer Walden W. O'Dell resigned from his position at Diebold, Dec. 12. Thomas W. Swidarski has been named the new chief executive officer, retaining his position as president and duties as chief operating officer. John N. Lauer, a member of the Diebold board since 1992, has been elected as non-executive chairman of the board. This comes just three months after Diebold president and chief operating officer Eric Evans was replaced by O'Dell as part of an executive restructuring that was brought on by lower-than-expected third quarter earnings. Swidarski's background is mostly in the financial space, said Diebold spokesman Mike Jacobsen, but "he's very tuned to the needs of banks from a security perspective, at the branch level," and he's been working closely with vice president of global security Dennis Moriarty, who came on board in the spring of 2005. Security represents roughly 25 percent of Diebold's more than $2 billion in revenues each year, said Jacobsen, and "moving forward, security is certainly a key area of business for us." He noted that, in the past two years, Diebold has acquired the London-based integrator Tasc and New York-based integrator Antarcom, which were rebranded Diebold Enterprise Security Systems. Further, it purchased Utah-based TFE, which operates more in IT security and is now called Diebold Information and Security Systems. "Picking up those companies lays down some track for us to expand globally," said Jacobsen, "and we picked up some expertise that we maybe were not historically strong in." In other company news, the Diebold board has authorized the repurchase of up to four million shares of common stock in the open market. This comes after August's authorization of a two million share buy-back.