RTI International Metals

Changing leadership is always a perilous moment for a corporation.  But when the change is unexpected, involves an heir with no operational experience in the business and is a woman in a male-dominated industry, the stakes are even higher.  

This was the challenge facing Makovsky when RTI, a $1 billion titanium company, asked us to prepare Wall Street for the sudden early retirement of Tim Rupert—RTI’s respected, long-standing, 59 year-old CEO—and his replacement by the company’s chief legal counsel—Dawne Hickton—smart and personable, but virtually unknown to investors.   We took a two-pronged approach:  minimizing the potentially damaging impact of the announcement itself and winning longer-term investor confidence in the company’s new leadership.  Defying the odds, RTI’s stock rose in the days immediately following the transition, reaching an all- time high just a few months later.  

Following Mrs. Hickton’s ascendency, Makovsky was retained to facilitate her smooth transition to the CEO position.   We worked to prepare her for handling investor conference calls, analyst relations as well as for working with the media.  We continued for several years as investor relations counsel to the company.