Devin Wenig, the CEO of Thomson Reuters' global markets division is to leave the company in a surprise shake-up of the business intended to improve sales to financial sector clients.
The departure of Wenig, an 18-year company veteran, was unexpected. He had long been seen as an eventual successor to Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer.
Charged with overseeing the integration of Reuters' and Thomson's financial markets business, Wenig had consolidated multiple overlapping product lines into a two-platform strategy based around the Eikon desktop and Elektron network.
His decision to leave the group is being viewed as a sign of impatience in the upper echelons of Thomson's holding company Woodbridge at the slow take-off the new product line amid demands for more far-reaching structural changes.
Under the new structure, the Markets division will be streamlined into two operational units, under which sales and trading and the investment and advisory divisions would be combined, leaving the enterprise and media business largely untouched.
Under the changes, Glocer will now assume Wenig's responsibilities.
"These changes are intended to accelerate growth as we flatten our organisation to operate as an integrated company and unleash cross-company capabilities and operating synergies," he says.
News of the shake-up comes as the company re-affirms its 2011 outlook, with overall revenues expected to be up four per cent in the second quarter. The results reflect "continued strong revenue performance across the Professional division with growth in the Markets division somewhat slower than anticipated".