Planning to put in your papers? Here's how the top bosses log off

Hugo Barra recently quit his position at Xiaomi, in China, to be closer to his family and friends in the Silicon Valley.

He later accepted a position with Facebook to oversee the social network’s virtual reality efforts.

Here are a range of other reasons that top bosses cited when they quit:

For the love of charity

Amit Singhal, who was instrumental in shaping Google Search across desktop, decided to quit his position as the company's vice-president of search to concentrate on philanthropic efforts. He quit in February 2016 after 15 years in Google. In a post to his colleagues, Singhal wrote, "I am eager to see what kind of impact I can make philanthropically, and of course, to spend more time with my family." Singhal, who then joined as Uber's SVP of engineering, was asked to step down on Monday for allegedly failing to disclose a sexual harassment allegation made against him at Google during his hiring process at the cab-sharing company.

On moral grounds

AMR Group, which is the parent company of American Airlines, prepared to file for bankruptcy in 2011. However, the group’s CEO Gerard J Arpey was not convinced of the morality of the move, which would mean re-negotiation with unions. Arpey said, “I believe it’s important to the character of the company and its ultimate long-term success to do your very best to honour those commitments,” and stepped aside from his role.

For a different role

In 2014, Mohamed El-Erian decided to step down from his role as the CEO of the bond trading firm Pimco after his daughter confronted him with a list of important events and activities he had missed due to work commitments. Erian said the conversation was a wake -up cal l and he decided to leave behind Pimco. He is currently a part-time economic advisor at Allianz, which is Pimco’s parent company.

When it is time to go


(Image: BCCL)

Meg Whitman is credited with turning eBay from an eccentric online portal to a $8-billion-in-sales company in 10 years. From when she took the role in 1998, Whitman maintained that the term limit for an effective CEO is 10 years. True to her word, she resigned in 2008. Since then, she tried her hand at politics and is currently the CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

A whiff of scandal

In October 2016, Wells Fargo’s CEO John Stumpf announced his resignation after public outcry over hundreds of accounts being opened by employees for customers who didn’t request them. Stumpf, who is considered to be one of the few bankers who emerged from the 2008 downturn relatively unscathed, is said to have taken the decision for the goodwill of the bank.