Wrigley chief Perez is replaced

Wrigley chief Perez is replaced

Wrigley chief Perez is replaced

Two weeks after Mars Inc. took control of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., the company named a longtime Wrigley insider to run the Chicago-based gum and candy icon.

On Monday, Wrigley named Dushan (Duke) Petrovich president effective immediately, replacing William Perez, president and chief executive office. Perez, who will get paid more than $25 million in severance, will serve in an advisory capacity through the end of the year, the company said.

In 2006, Perez became the first person outside the Wrigley family to be president and CEO of the 116-year-old company.

Perez was president and CEO of Nike Inc. from 2004 to 2006, when conflicts between him and company founder Phil Knight forced him out. Before that, he spent 34 years with Racine, Wis.-based S.C. Johnson, serving as president and chief executive for eight years.

Petrovich is a Chicago native who began his career in the Wrigley finance department 30 years ago and later served as vice president, corporate controller and vice president, corporate treasurer. His most recent role was senior vice president and chief administrative officer.

As president, Petrovich will continue to work closely with Wrigley Chairman Bill Wrigley Jr., and both will report to Mars President and CEO Paul Michaels.

Jim Burns, president of J.W. Burns & Co. investment counsel of Syracuse, N.Y., said Perez did an admirable job focusing on improving Wrigley's growth, profit margins and business operations -- efforts that Mars already has a team to do.

"Perez did his job in a publicly held company," Burns said of Wrigley prior to its takeover by Mars.

"Now that the company is private, it doesn't need that high-profile person there," Burns said. "The (Mars) people wanted a longtime Wrigley insider."