What Steve Jobs did for Apple and Bill Gates did for Microsoft stands as testament to what a great CEO can do to a company. On the other hand he can screw it up also, let us take a look at some of the worst CEOs the world has ever seen and find out how bad they can be.
Bernie Ebbers
On any list of worst CEOs, Ebbers would come in the first five. He is the man behind the WorldCom fraud, without doubt one of the darkest and most infamous episodes in the U.S. corporate history. As the Co-Founder and CEO of the U.S. telecom giant WorldCom, he orchestrated an $11 billion dollar fraud that eventually led the company to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002. The downturn that the telecom industry went through during the 2000s had a major toll on the aggressive growth strategy of the company and Ebbers' withdrawal of around $400 million from the company to cover the margin calls he had in his other businesses did not help either. The company was on a downward spiral but decided not to let the stakeholders know this. By deploying fraudulent accounting methods he and his chorus managed to convince the shareholders of a financial growth that was nonexistent. Regardless of his brilliant plans and not guilty speeches he was found guilty by the court of law and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Joseph P Nacchio
Nacchio was the CEO and the Chairman of the board of Qwest Communications International from 1997 to 2002. He came into scrutiny after rumors of insider trading started flowing in during the early 2002. Being the CEO of the company he had firsthand knowledge of the diminishing financial prospects of his company, and instead of letting the stakeholders know this situation he decided to use the information to make himself rich. He sold a majority of his stocks way before the price fell from $38 to below $2. This, plus the accounting scandal during his term, which the company was fined for, has made sure a position will be reserved for him in the worst CEOs of the telecom industry list. The court found him guilty for 19 counts of Insider trading, fined him millions, ordered him to forfeit the money he made from this and send him to prison. A much deserved punishment, without doubt.
Frank Dunn
Dunn is someone who grew up in Nortel Networking Corporation. He joined the company as a management trainee and grew inside the company climbing one ladder after another until he reached the CEO's position in 2001. He was promoted to the position of CFO in 1999 and then post the retirement of then CEO John Roth he became the CEO. Back then, the company was facing severe financial distress and he started his journey by laying off about 60000 of its workforce and write-downs of nearly US$16 billion in 2001 alone. In the first quarter of 2003, when least expected, the company registered profit and gave its top management a bonus of $19 million. This led to suspicion from several experts in the industry and Deloitte & Touche advised audit committee chairman and board chairman to look into the results. That started the infamous accounting scandal that literally ruined the reputation and financial stability of the company forever. Dunn along with some of his colleagues were let go in 2004 and are presently waiting for their court trials to start
Gary Forsee
Unlike Ebbers, Nacchio and Dunn, Gary Forsee is not a fraud, he is just a mislead soul who believed companies are more powerful than their customers. Once considered among the best managers, his tenure as the CEO of Sprint Nextel Corporation did not end that well. Under his leadership the company seemed to care less about its customers. In 2007 the company decided to dump about 1000 of its customers because it felt they complained 'too much', apparently the decision was not so well received by the general public and its customers alike. There was a wide cry and in the 3rd quarter of 2007 witnessed its customers leaving in bulk, it lost about 337,000 customers in this time frame. This was a wakeup call to the board, who realized the blunder Forsee made and how its aftershocks are shaking the core of the company. They took charge and let him go
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