Debate continues to swirl around the prospects for Callaway Golf Company after the company announced last week that yet another key executive would be leaving the company — and leaving it very thin at the top. Patrice Hutin, who has held the position of president and CEO since September 2003, will leave the company effective immediately. Hutin has spent nearly 20 years in the golf business, serving as president of TaylorMade Golf and Cleveland Golf before joining Callaway.
The move by Hutin, who came to Callaway in 2000 as Managing Director of Callaway Golf Europe and was promoted to EVP of Global Sales and Advertising in September 2002, comes on the heels of the departure of former CEO Ron Drapeau.
William C. Baker, who has been on the Callaway board since 1994, is clearly in the process of consolidating his grip on the company, grabbing the chairman and CEO titles when Drapeau was forced out in August and now assuming Hutins role as well. Baker, who is 71 years old, is known as a strong businessman and has undoubtedly identified people internally to take on the daily workload Hutin and Drapeau left behind.
In his role as president and COO Hutin was responsible for product management and development for all golf club products, as well as the sales and marketing functions worldwide for the Callaway and Odyssey brands.
>>> Looking to the product issues over the last year, perhaps Baker thought it was going to be difficult to rely on Hutin to fix what was broken on his watch…
