Ethan Allen says it has started a search for a new CEO to succeed longtime executive

Home furniture and furnishing retailer Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. announced that it has started a search for a new CEO to succeed Farooq Kathwari, who has been at the helm of the publicly traded company for nearly 40 years

NEW YORK -- Home furniture and furnishing retailer Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. announced that it has started a search for a new CEO to succeed Farooq Kathwari, who has been at the helm of the publicly traded company for nearly 40 years.

The Danbury, Connecticut-based retailer said Monday it has hired a nationally recognized executive search firm that is considering both internal and external candidates. It said the board is committed to announcing its next CEO no later than June 30, 2027. That's the date on which Kathwari's current contract is scheduled to end.

The company said that Kathwari will remain a nonexecutive member of the board after June 30 until the company’s 2027 annual shareholder meeting.

Kathwari has been president of the retailer since 1985 and chairman and CEO since 1988, according to the company's website. He helped take Ethan Allen public in March 1993.

The announcement comes after investor Doug Bergeron, who owns a more than 5% stake in Ethan Allen, shared publicly earlier this month that he had launched his own search for a new CEO in advance of the company's annual shareholders' meeting. A date hasn’t been set yet, but historically it’s held in November.

Bergeron cited the company's “apparent unwillingness” to address the need for a CEO succession.

“Ethan Allen has all the ingredients needed to compete and win in the home furnishings industry," he wrote in a statement shared on Sept. 10. “What it has lacked is leadership capable of putting its considerable assets to work.”

In August, Bergeron nominated an alternate slate of six members for the board for the next shareholders' meeting.

In response to Ethan Allen's announcement on Monday, Bergeron issued a public statement that the company's acknowledgment that it needs new leadership is “too little, too late.”

“A board comprised of loyalists to Farooq, who repeatedly extended his tenure and increased his compensation while he presided over a shrinking, less competitive, and less valuable business, is utterly unqualified to select the next CEO of Ethan Allen,” he wrote.