Canton, Mass. — Tweeter Home Entertainment Group’s president and CEO Jeff Stone will leave the company April 26 to become president/COO of Tivoli Audio, a new position reporting to Tivoli’s CEO Tom DeVesto.
Tweeter’s board has named chief financial officer Joe McGuire as interim CEO, effective immediately, and has initiated a search for a permanent successor, although McGuire is a “likely contender” to succeed Stone permanently, according to Tweeter’s chairman and founder Sandy Bloomberg.
Stone joined Tweeter as president/COO in 1990 and was named CEO in 2000. He guided the company during its rapid expansion from a $23 million regional player to an $800 million national chain while it pursued an aggressive strategy of growth through acquisitions.
His resignation comes at another critical juncture for the company, as it transitions to a new game plan built around media center-based custom home installation, solution selling and a next-generation store model. According to founder Bloomberg, Stone felt that he had led the company as far as his skill set would allow, and is voluntarily stepping aside as Tweeter embarks on its next phase of its growth.
“Jeff truly, genuinely felt it would be in Tweeter’s best interest to let someone else continue turning this big ship,” Bloomberg told TWICE. He described Stone and DeVesto as close friends of his and a good match, and compared the $30 million radio vendor to the Tweeter that Stone joined 15 years ago. “Jeff helped us get there and he will help Tivoli get there too,” he said.
Bloomberg added that Stone will continue to have as big an impact on Tweeter over the next 15 years as he’s had in the prior decade and a half thanks to the new management team and strategic plan he recently put in place.
Stone will remain on the board of Tweeter, which holds a 25 percent equity stake in Tivoli, a private, Boston-based producer of premium table radios. DeVesto founded the company with Henry Kloss, the late, legendary audio designer who developed the Tivoli product line. The two had previously co-founded Cambridge SoundWorks, and worked together at Kloss’ Advent and Kloss Video ventures.
