Ex-Timberland CFO gets $500k severance

The Timberland Company’s former chief financial officer will leave the company with a severance package of more than $500,000, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

John Crimmins III, who left the company at the end of September, will receive 48 weeks of his base salary. He was paid $325,000 in 2008, which would translate into a $300,000 severance. In addition, the Stratham, N.H.-based footwear company agreed to pay another $217,462 in a one-time separation payment. He can collect his salary in a lump sum after Jan. 1.

The package would be in addition to the “amounts due to Mr. Crimmins under his existing arrangements,” the company said. That would include various equity awards that won’t be quantified by the company until its next proxy statement, sometime in April 2010.

Crimmins, a former chief financial officer at Interactiveprint, started at Timberland in 2002 and spent his first five years as corporate controller before being named acting CFO. He assumed the CFO position in August of 2007.

Timberland never gave a reason for Crimmins’ departure, but the company has struggled while he was in office.

In the second quarter of this year, Timberland reported a net loss of $19.2 million, compared with a second-quarter 2008 net loss of $18.9 million. Quarterly revenue declined 14.4 percent, to $179.7 million.

Crimmins was replaced by Carrie W. Teffner, the 43-year-old CFO of a division of Sara Lee Corp. – BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW