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Doug Bergeron Responds to Ethan Allen CEO Succession Announcement

September 22, 2026  by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry   

“Ethan Allen’s September 21, 2026 recognition that the Company needs new leadership is too little, too late. Questions about CEO succession have hung over Ethan Allen for more than a decade. The Company’s Board of Directors (the ‘Board’) had years to develop a thoughtful succession plan. Yet only when pressured by our campaign did the Board’s ‘plan’ suddenly come to light. This last-ditch announcement is an abject failure of governance, and continues a pattern of rash and reactionary maneuvers by the Board following the Company’s special dividend declared last month.

“The chronology is difficult to ignore. On August 7, Chairman and CEO Farooq Kathwari stated publicly that succession was an issue the Board had ‘never raised.’ On September 10, we announced that our alternative slate of director candidates had launched an independent CEO search. The next day, Ethan Allen filed its preliminary proxy statement without disclosing a formal CEO search or a specific transition timeline. Today, the Board describes an ‘ongoing formal’ process and says a search firm is already identifying and evaluating candidates. A credible succession process should not have needed a proxy contest to become visible to shareholders.

“The Board now says it needs a CEO to accelerate digital, omnichannel, and supply-chain execution – areas Farooq has spent years insisting Ethan Allen was ‘well positioned’ to address, and precisely the shortcomings our campaign has highlighted. 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. Shareholders should ask themselves whom they trust to identify the next CEO: the Board who failed to act until forced, or our nominees who made the Company act. In other words, are the directors who presided over Ethan Allen’s shortcomings the right people to select the leader now charged with fixing them?

“It is especially concerning that Farooq may continue to serve as Chairman and CEO throughout a succession process that, under the Board’s own timeline, could run through June 30, 2027. Ethan Allen cannot afford nine more months of the same leadership while the incumbent Board manages a transition it should have commenced years ago. Two decades of deteriorating operating performance, culminating in the Company’s disappointing fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2026 results, do not argue for patience – they underscore the cost of delay and the need for independent Board leadership now. Shareholders should not be fooled by claims of continuity and stability, which, in reality, means continued contraction and declines in sales, profits, and relevance.

“It is time for a fresh start. Ethan Allen’s next chapter requires a new Board that is capable of maximizing the Company’s potential. We already have a CEO search underway, led by high-caliber nominees who have proven records of revitalizing brands while driving results and accountability, and who have the expertise needed to restore profitable growth at Ethan Allen. Ethan Allen shareholders deserve a board that is thoughtful, qualified to govern a modern retail business, and committed to working tirelessly on behalf of shareholders, not just when backed into a corner. If the current Board remains in control of the Company, shareholders should expect more of the same: incompetence and underperformance.”

For more information on Mr. Bergeron’s campaign, including the case for change and nominee biographies, shareholders are encouraged to visit www.EthanAllenGrowth.com.