EDS Names New CFO

PLANO, Texas (AP) -- Electronic Data Systems Corp. has replaced James Daley as chief financial officer. The move, announced Tuesday, comes four months after the computer-services company issued a dramatic warning on third-quarter profits.

EDS, based in Plano, Texas, said Robert H. Swan, 42, CFO at defense contractor TRW Inc., would replace Daley, 61.

Daley had been EDS's chief financial officer since March 1999. The company said he would remain as an executive vice president. He will oversee sales and marketing and the company's client-care organizations, replacing Chuck Griffith, who is leaving, EDS said.

In a statement, Brown praised Swan's experience as CFO of a large corporation and said he "strengthens the leadership team" and would let Daley serve the company in new areas.

Daley and Brown were forced to defend EDS last year when the company's stock price plunged after it warned that earnings would fall about 80% short of expectations in the third quarter.

The company blamed the slump on a downturn in corporate discretionary spending on technology.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an informal inquiry into events leading up to the earnings warning and a series of stock transactions that the company paid $225 million to settle.

Last month, EDS also reduced its fourth-quarter earnings outlook by about 10%.

Swan also will hold the title of executive vice president and will report directly to chairman and chief executive Richard H. Brown.

Swan has been chief financial officer at TRW CFO since 2001. He previously worked as CFO for three units of General Electric Co. and was CFO and later chief executive at Webvan Group.