CEOs Sent Packing in Record Numbers

The Wall Street Journal - When Joseph Galli Jr. got forced out as chief executive officer at Newell Rubbermaid Inc., he was certain he would brush himself off and try for another CEO job. From his father, a school dropout who built a successful scrap yard near Pittsburgh, Mr. Galli learned to work hard and never give up.

But the lessons that propelled Mr. Galli to the top of the corporate world proved less useful in selling himself to a new employer. Instead, he encountered a paradox known to many out-of-work CEOs: Though they are driven like few others to succeed, once they fail, many don't get a second chance to run a public company.

Mr. Galli is an exception. Smarting from his 2005 ouster from Newell -- and branded a brash boss with little regard for boards of directors or the nuances of corporate cultures he had inherited -- he was rebuffed by recruiters. He endured a year of humbling unemployment and self-reflection before returning to the corner office, this time as the CEO of Techtronic Industries Co., a Hong Kong-based manufacturer of Ryobi power tools, Homelite outdoor products and Hoover and Dirt Devil vacuum cleaners.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123316803228825095.html