Nautilus Inc. announced Wednesday that its chairman, Edward Bramson, has taken over as the Vancouver-based company's chief executive officer.Bramson is partner and portfolio manager for New York-based Sherborne Investors, which controls the Nautilus board. Sherborne is a minority owner of the publicly traded company, and replaced four of the seven board directors with its team in late 2007.
Bramson replaces Robert Falcone, who served as president and CEO since August, when he was appointed by the board. At that time, Falcone replaced ousted former CEO Gregg Hammann.
Bramson will split his time between New York and Vancouver, and will remain chairman of the board, a Nautilus spokesperson said Wednesday.
Bramson was unavailable for comment.
Nautilus is in the midst of conducting a review of its operations and expects to share the results of the review with shareholders after the end of the second quarter.
The announcement comes after a year of declining profits and a workforce cut of 140 people in October, including 80 in Vancouver. The reduction was an attempt to slash Nautilus' expenses by $10 million annually.
