Greyhound Lines is under control of Scottish company

The chief executive of Greyhound Lines resigned. Now the control of the bus operator has shifted to a Scottish company.

Photo: Greyhound Lines is under control of Scottish company

Stephen E. Gorman, 52, had been president and CEO since 2003. After he resigned Monday, he was replaced by Dave Leach, the bus company's chief operating officer.

Leach, 43, is a 21-year veteran with Greyhound and its Canadian affiliate. He was named chief operating officer last year and directed customer service, driver operations, maintenance and other duties.

The company gave no explanation for the change.

Greyhound had been a division of Laidlaw International Inc., based in Naperville, Illinois. On Monday, FirstGroup PLC, the largest surface-transportation company in the United Kingdom, took over Laidlaw to complete a $3.6 billion (2.54 billion EUR) acquisition.

FirstGroup is a major school bus operator and was thought to be mostly interested in Laidlaw's school bus business.

Jennifer Robinson, a spokeswoman for FirstGroup, said Greyhound would remain based in Dallas and would not be combined with FirstGroup's other operating units.

Gorman was a senior executive at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. before joining Greyhound in 2003. At the bus company, he led a reduction of the fleet and a restructuring of routes to focus on short and medium-length trips while eliminating money-losing routes.

Greyhound operates about 1,250 buses serving more than 1,700 U.S. destinations. The company has about 8,400 employees, including more than 3,000 drivers. The company said revenue last year was $1.2 billion.