George Shaheen | |
---|---|
Born | July 11, 1944 |
Alma mater | Bradley University |
Occupation | Businessman |
Years active | 1970s-present |
George T. Shaheen (born July 11, 1944) is an American businessman. He became chief executive at management consulting firm Andersen Consulting in 1989, [1] and in 1999 became CEO of Webvan. [2] Shaheen was CEO of Siebel Systems from 2005 until 2006. [3]
George Shaheen was born in 1944 [4] and grew up with his twin Gerald in Elmwood, Illinois. [5] Shaheen is an American of Lebanese descent. [6] At age 13 [5] he worked at the family grocery shop in town. He holds a master's degree in finance from Bradley University, graduating in 1967 and going to work at Arthur Andersen. [5]
He was sent by Arthur Andersen in 1977 in South Bend, Indiana and moved in 1986 to Silicon Valley. [5] He became the chief at Andersen's consulting arm in 1989, and "oversaw the move to set up Andersen Consulting as a free-standing unit." [5] He was chief executive at management consulting firm Andersen Consulting from 1989. [1] At Andersen, as CEO "its revenue increased from $1.1 billion to $8.3 billion." [1] He was CEO until 1999, before moving on to online grocer Webvan. [2] The move "shocked colleagues" at Andersen Consulting. [7] After he left Andersen Consulting, it was renamed Accenture, [2] and Shaheen missed out on the windfall of the Accenture initial public offering. [8]
He joined Webvan while it was "one of the largest start-ups during the Dot-com Bubble," with plans to deliver online grocery orders within 30 minutes. [9] His Webvan employment agreement, signed September 19, 1999 was filed with the SEC. [10] Under Shaheen, the company underwent an IPO in November 1999, raising $375 million with stocks soaring, and the company valued at $8.45 billion. [1] Shares afterwards dropped sharply [11] with the dotcom bubble. [1] He resigned as CEO of WebVan in April 2001. [4] [11] His retirement pack included collecting $375,000 each year for the rest of his life from WebVan. [1] Webvan declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001. [9] When the company filed bankruptcy, Shaheen became an unsecured creditor. [12] In 2010, Business Insider named him one of the 15 Worst CEOs in American History, citing his involvement with Webvan. [9]
Appointed on April 13, 2005, [13] in 2005-2006, Shaheen was CEO of Siebel Systems, Inc. [3] and served as CEO when it merged with Oracle [14] in 2005, five months after his appointment as CEO. [15] He had joined the Siebel Systems board in 1995, and he remained a director after becoming CEO. [13] He did not stay on with Oracle after the merger.
In 2013, he was on the board of [24]7. [16]
George Shaheen was the target of parody cartoon Bigtime Consulting, which parodied Andersen Consulting and had a very similar CEO character named George Unseen. [17]
In 1999, he lived in Silicon Valley. [5] He has been married to Darlene Shaheen since 1984.