Word of Siegel's departure came from Lexis-Nexis's Anglo-Dutch parent Reed Elsevier plc, which called the departure alternately a "retirement" and "sabbatical." Siegel officially leaves the company Dec. 1. Yet his replacement, Hans Gieskes, 43, a Reed Elsevier executive from the Netherlands, starts immediately.
After less than three years on the job, Siegel's exit surprised some of the company's 6,400 employees, 2,500 of whom work at Lexis-Nexis headquarters in Miami Twp. His personal items reportedly were still in his sixth-floor office Monday afternoon as Gieskes (pronounced GEES-kes) strolled company corridors and introduced himself.
"This is the European style of management," one Lexis-Nexis employee said. "This is how they let you know who's boss."
In an interview in October with the Dayton Daily News, Siegel gave no hint he was leaving the company.
Siegel, 53, who lived in a rented town house in Centerville on weekdays, reportedly returned to his home in New Jersey and could not be reached for comment on Monday.
Nigel Stapleton, co-chairman of Reed Elsevier, declined to say who approached whom about the retirement. Stapleton said Siegel and the company had mutually agreed he would leave by a certain time and that the rigors of travel contributed to Siegel's exit.
Siegel also had personal reasons for leaving, but Stapleton declined to discuss them. However, he said Siegel's departure had nothing to do with Lexis-Nexis's ongoing reorganization.
"I wouldn't exclude the possibility that after recuperation, he'll go back into a job that won't be as demanding as the job at Lexis-Nexis," Stapleton said. "He came to Lexis-Nexis with a relatively fixed time in mind. His family is on the East Coast and he didn't want to relocate his family.
"The other approach would have been to move Lexis-Nexis to the East Coast, but Ira and all of us don't see that as the right approach," Stapleton added.
Siegel will remain a member of the Reed Elsevier board "for as long as he feels he can deal with the commitment and we feel he's contributing," Stapleton said.
Once a skeptic of personal computing and later the Internet, Siegel changed his tune when he saw Lexis-Nexis's market share threatened by online competition.
Lexis-Nexis is seeing a 50 percent drop in revenue growth this year over last and faces competition from smaller, more nimble Internet companies that offer much of what Lexis-Nexis does for free. Siegel announced a few weeks ago the company is cutting some centralized operations of its business units, freeing them to market and conduct product development on their own.
Although the reorganization might mean layoffs for the first time since Reed Elsevier bought Lexis-Nexis from Dayton-based Mead Corp. in 1994, Siegel sounded upbeat in October when he said, "This is a dynamic place. This is a fun place."
Siegel enjoyed a 26-year tenure with Reed Elsevier, migrating from Cahners Publishing Co., R.R. Bowker, Martindale-Hubble and Reed Reference Publishing before arriving at Lexis-Nexis in 1995.
Stapleton said Gieskes has overseen Lexis-Nexis operations in Europe and has "had quite a lot of contact" with senior management here.
"He's not being parachuted in as an outsider," Stapleton said.
A Dutch national, it's unclear if Gieskes will relocate his family.
"How he covers his personal arrangements is his business," Stapleton said.
Hans Gieskes
* NEW TITLE: President and chief executive
* REPLACES: Ira T. Siegel
* RESUME: He has been with Reed Elsevier plc for 19 years, and for the past year served as vice chairman of the company's legal division. He was chief executive of Bonaventura, publisher of consumer and special-interest magazines in the Netherlands. He also worked for 12 years at Elsevier Science in sales, technology and management positions.
* AGE: 43
PHOTOS:
(1) Ira T. Siegel
(2) Hans Gieskes
* CONTACT Mike Drummond at 225-2393 or e-mail him at
mike_drummond@coxohio.com