HOUSTON, May 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Carriage Services,
Inc. (NYSE: CSV) announced today that on May
21, 2015, L. William
Heiligbrodt, Executive Vice President and Secretary of
Carriage Services, Inc. (the "Company"), informed the management of
the Company of his intent to retire on March
4, 2016.
Commenting on the announcement, Melvin
C. Payne, Chief Executive Officer, stated "It is with a
personal sense of gratefulness, pride, honor and joy mixed with a
little sadness that I announce that Bill
Heiligbrodt will officially retire as a full time employee
of Carriage on March 4, 2016, only a
few months before his 75th birthday. He will serve
afterwards as a consultant to me and other members of our
Operations and Strategic Growth Leadership Team (OSGLT) for two
more years in accordance with the terms of his amended employment
contract that he and I negotiated at the beginning of 2014 with the
goal of finishing the first five year timeframe of Carriage's
Good To Great Journey. Between now and March 4th of next year, Bill, Dave and
I will be working on handing off key executive roles and
responsibilities to very capable younger members of our OSGLT who
are proven 4E Leaders and the primary reason we have entered an
enterprise value creation "earning power sweet spot" that is
accelerating the Carriage Good To Great Journey. Our
role now as experienced senior leaders of Carriage becomes a highly
satisfying one professionally and personally of developing and
mentoring this younger group of "owner leaders" into their full
potential over the next several years so that Carriage fulfills the
goal of becoming a Built to Last Company.
My relationship with Bill goes back over forty years to 1975
when I joined Texas Commerce Bank, after which we worked closely
together in a large, offshore owned, private equity LBO group, and
then again in deathcare after Bill joined SCI in 1988. Based
on a friendship and professional experience of mutual trust and
performance, Bill reached out to me in March
1988 as soon as he co-founded Provident Services, a funeral
home financing subsidiary of SCI, and said he would loan me the
money to start my own company.
After over three years of due diligence and winding down my
turnaround restructuring business, my personal stars were in
alignment to pursue my dream of building Carriage "My Way!" Carriage was founded on
June 1, 1991 with a $35 million line of credit from Provident
supported by my personal guaranty and a promise from Bill that
"Don't worry, we'll teach you the do's and don'ts of the
business!" I got an "on the job" PhD. in funeral and cemetery
acquisitions, operations and finance as Bill later sold Carriage
groups of businesses mostly pursuant to FTC consent degrees when
SCI bought larger consolidators. I would like to take this
opportunity to also thank Bob
Waltrip, the pioneering founder and visionary of SCI for his
support in funding Carriage in its early years through Provident,
which got me out of the gate with the critical mass to survive the
inevitable bumps in the road even after going public in 1996.
After Bill left SCI in early 1999, we did not talk again for ten
years, as we both focused our energies on creating something very
special consistent with our common DNA and idea of Being the
Best (Bill in thoroughbred horses and me on experimenting and
evolving Carriage's "Goofy" Standards Operating, 4E Leadership and
Strategic Acquisition Models, now linked together to form
Carriage's High Performance Culture Framework). So it was
only natural that when I needed help the most I called Bill in
January 2009 at the depths of the
financial and market crash (our stock was under $2) and asked him to join our Board as Lead
Director, which he immediately accepted. And as the saying
goes, the rest is history, as the next six years up until now has
been a crowning success story to our long relationship and one that
will continue even after Bill formally retires next
March.
I want to personally and publicly thank Bill on behalf of my
family and all leaders and employees of Carriage for his huge
contributions to our company, both at the beginning of the
Carriage journey in the 1990's and especially over the last six
years. Our company would not exist and our Good To Great
Journey would not be continuing and accelerating if
Bill Heiligbrodt had not believed so
passionately in what we were doing consistent with the idea of
Being the Best.
Bill, Dave and I with our Board have agreed that Ben Brink will assume the official role and
responsibility of Carriage's Principal Financial Officer and that
Viki Blinderman will assume the role
and responsibility of Secretary as required for SEC and NYSE
compliance with rules and regulations. However, all of the
thirteen members of OSGLT (including Bill, Dave and me) are
collaboratively involved (we refer to our unorthodox leadership
structure as "No Titles for Nobody") as appropriate individually
and in small teams on all capital allocation, reporting and
financing matters that relate to our company. Bill will be
available full time over the next nine months and afterwards as a
consultant for two years to smoothly transition his primary
official duties to Ben and Viki as well as to be available as
necessary and appropriate to all members of OSGLT on all matters
including operations, acquisitions, investor relations, financing,
succession planning, etc.
The best stories are often told with simple data (the data don't
lie!), which in Bill's case is reflected by our stock price, which
was $1.62 per share when he joined
our Board on February 25, 2009
compared to $25.44 at today's close
on May 21, 2015, an increase
of approximately 16 times and near the all time high of
$29.25 in January 1999. The
difference is that this time it's real and not only sustainable but
getting better, and the best is yet to come! Our two back to
back announcements today, first this morning before the market
opened on the $25 million stock
repurchase program and now after the close on Bill's formal
retirement early next year, serve as a permanent testimonial to his
importance to me and the Carriage Being the Best Mission,
Vision and Good To Great Journey!" concluded Mr.
Payne.
Thank you Bill!!
Carriage Services is a leading provider of deathcare services
and merchandise in the United
States. Carriage operates 166 funeral homes in 27 states and
32 cemeteries in 11 states.
Certain statements made herein or elsewhere by, or on behalf of,
the Company that are not historical facts are intended to be
forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements are
based on assumptions that the Company believes are reasonable;
however, many important factors, as discussed under
"Forward-Looking Statements and Cautionary Statements" in the
Company's Annual Report and Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2014, could cause the
Company's results in the future to differ materially from the
forward-looking statements made herein and in any other documents
or oral presentations made by, or on behalf of, the Company. The
Company assumes no obligation to update or publicly release any
revisions to forward-looking statements made herein or any other
forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the Company. A
copy of the Company's Form 10-K, and other Carriage Services
information and news releases, are available at
http://www.carriageservices.com.
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SOURCE Carriage Services, Inc.