Kodak Taps Its President to Succeed Retiring CEO

Eastman Kodak President Kay R. Whitmore has been named to succeed Colby H. Chandler as chief executive when Chandler retires in June.

Whitmore, 57, will assume his new position when Chandler retires June 1 after 40 years with the Rochester, N.Y., company. He has been chief executive of the photographic equipment and supplies manufacturing company since 1983.

Whitmore, who has been with Kodak since 1957, has been president for six years and an executive officer since 1986.

Kodak Vice Chairman J. Phillip Samper, 55, who had been considered a rival of Whitmore for the top job, said he would take early retirement effective Jan. 1. He had become vice chairman and an executive officer in 1986.

Chandler, Whitmore and Samper have ruled Kodak through a three-man executive council that officials said will now be disbanded, giving Whitmore sole control of the company. Kodak spokesman Henry Kaska said the company had no plans to name a president or vice chairman for at least a year.

Financial analysts said Whitmore’s succession did not represent a change in policy for the company, which is in the midst of a restructuring and job-cutting plan aimed at turning around sagging profits.

“Whitmore has been part of the recent direction anyway,” said Eugene Glazer of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. “I don’t see that the course of the company is likely to change.”