Michael J. Critelli will retire as executive chairman and director of Pitney Bowes Inc. by the end of 2008. Critelli made the announcement to the company’s board of directors on May 12.
“I don’t know that we had a specific idea of the time he was going to decide to retire, but there was certainly an expectation that when the time felt right for him to leave the company, he would make an announcement,” said Matt Broder, VP of external communications for Pitney Bowes, a mailstream technology company.
Pitney Bowes’ board of directors will be looking at its options over the next several months and Critelli will be part of those discussions, Broder said. An announcement regarding Critelli’s replacement will most likely be made before the end of the year, he said.
“We’re going to make all the appropriate handoffs and Mike will move on to his private life and leave behind a much stronger company capable of controlling its own destiny,” Broder said.
Critelli first started working for Pitney Bowes in 1979 as a staff attorney in the legal department. He later held the positions of general counsel, chief personnel officer, president of Pitney Bowes Financial Services and vice chairman. He became CEO of the company in 1996 and the following year he was named chairman. Critelli remained CEO until 2007, when he was named executive chairman.
According to the company, Critelli was instrumental in focusing Pitney Bowes’ growth in its core mailstream business. “To achieve this, Critelli led the divestiture of the fax and copier business, and the financial services businesses unrelated to the mailstream,” the company said.
“I am able to retire because under president and CEO Murray Martin’s highly effective leadership, my responsibilities can be assumed by others. I want to retire because I will be better able to pursue goals that matter deeply to me,” Critelli said in a statement.
According to Pitney Bowes, following his retirement Critelli plans to remain “very active in areas to which he has devoted considerable effort, such as healthcare, transportation, sustainable development and communications.”
