John Presley, the CEO of Toano, Va.-based Lumber Liquidators, wrote in a letter to the company filed with the SEC yesterday that he has been diagnosed with leukemia.
He said he would still be involved in the day-to-day operations of the company while he undergoes a 30-day treatment program at a hospital in Richmond, Va.
“The good news is that it is a very treatable form of the disease with standard protocols for treatment, and we have caught it very early,” Presley wrote. “I feel strong physically and mentally going into this.”
Presley has been Lumber Liquidators’ CEO since November, when he took over for acting CEO and company founder Tom Sullivan. Former CEO Robert Lynch left the company “unexpectedly” in May, three months following a “60 Minutes” investigation questioning the formaldehyde content of the company’s Chinese-made laminate flooring.
The CDC recently released its analysis of the flooring from the “60 Minutes” investigation and concluded it posed a low cancer risk.
Lumber Liquidators’ stock has increased $2.88 in value so far this week to $15.57 at press time, but remains more than 75 percent down from when the “60 Minutes” investigation was announced a year ago.
