Airport and hospitality operator ICOA loses its chief executive of 18 months: Rick Schiffmann along with chief financial officer Stephen Cummings had their resignations accepted by the board June 26 according to an SEC filing I was alerted to. Part of the filings explain that Schiffmann and Cummings have several months of unpaid salary. ICOA agrees as part of the separation to pay back wages and other fees, reprice options for Cummings, and agree to strict terms under which default could be declared. (Update: On July 6, 2006, ICOA put out a press release in which the company states it requested the resignations. The SEC filings state simply that resignations were accepted.)
As I noted in a story in April after reading the pink-sheet traded firm's 10-KSB filing, the company stated they need to raise at least $2.2m in financing to continue its expansion. In their list of provisos about the company's finances--under the heading "Going Concern"--the firm said, "The ability of ICOA to continue as a going concern
is dependent on ICOA's ability to raise additional debt or capital...We remain confident of our strategic direction and recognize that the investment in growing our business will take some time to generate sufficient cash-flow to support all of our operations and opportunities. Strengthening the Company's cash position remains a top priority for 2006."
This filing, as far as I can tell, mentions nothing about deferred salary.
Schiffmann was a key figure at SoftNet, where Ken Brilliant first tried his hand at Wi-Fi via Aerzone, and then founded his own venture, Airport Network Solutions. He then moved to Cometa, Brilliant's second Wi-Fi venture, for just a few months (Dec. 2002 to April 2003), according to his company bio. (Brilliant is now pursuing more noble ventures at Google.org.)