Gelco Reorganizes, Names Karen Beckwith As CEO

Eden Prairie, Minn. - Gelco Information Network on Jan. 29 announced the reorganization of its business structure and merged its two primary divisions, the expense management and trade management groups. The company's two segments were consolidated under the leadership of Gelco's newly appointed president and CEO, Karen Beckwith, who previously led the trade management division as president and CEO. Consequently, former CEO of Gelco's expense management division Jon Klem resigned.

The realignment of the two groups follows its initial segmentation in September of 2000 when the board of directors named two CEOs and each division began to act as a standalone company under the legal entity of Gelco Information Network.

"I don't know of any other companies that had two CEOs for two divisions, who each report to the board, and not one CEO for the overall legal entity," Beckwith said. "The intention at that time was to further the focus on each group."

Beckwith and Klem, also at that time, took on president and CEO duties for their respective divisions. "When we named the two CEOs in 2000, we still had some functions that were shared and leveraged," Beckwith said. "Over the past two years, we further segregated. Anything that is market- and customer-focused—starting with marketing and product management to product development, sales, implementation, training, service and help desk—are all totally separate organizations, each focused on their markets."

Gelco officials said reviving the company's former structure will "enable the organization to leverage shared business synergies, resources and core competencies across the organization."

At the board of directors' request to extend her focus to Gelco's expense management business and fill in the leadership void, Beckwith named former vice president of operations for the trade management group Barry Brown as the new COO of Gelco trade management.

Beckwith joined Gelco in 1999, when she served as CFO of the company. Prior to that, she held senior management positions at Ceridian Corp. and Deluxe Corp.