MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio — Jeffrey Green has retired as chief executive of DataTrak International Inc., the Mayfield Heights company that develops software and services for clinical researchers.
Green stepped down as CEO and director “to pursue other opportunities, effective immediately,” DataTrak said in an early morning statement (pdf)Â Wednesday.
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DataTrak Chairman Laurence Birch will be interim chief executive for the company, which plans to start a search for a permanent CEO “within the next several weeks,” according to the statement.
DataTrak  has had its ups and downs in the 17 years that Green helped build the company.
In May, the company that offers software and services to track clinical research and trial data restructured its senior management(pdf), electing Birch as chairman and eliminating its chief operating officer position, which had been held by Terry Black. At the time, Matt Delaney, who was vice president of marketing and sales, was appointed interim president.
Birch had been a DataTrak director for a year before his chairman appointment. He also is president, CEO and acting chief financial officer for NeoPharm Inc., a research and drug development company in Lake Bluff, Ill.
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“We are clearly in the early stages of emerging from a difficult and challenging period at DataTrak,” Birch said in a May 2008 statement on the management restructuring. “Over the past 12 months, we have implemented a number of changes to our sales and marketing team and strategies, undertaken numerous cost savings measures and now restructured our senior management team in ways we believe will capitalize on individual team member’s strengths.”
On Wednesday, DataTrak said Green’s departure was “an extension” of the May 2008 management restructuring, so the company did not anticipate any interruption to operations, as a result.
In July, DataTrak said it had hired Healthcare Growth Partners LLC(pdf) as a strategic and financial adviser to look at ways for the company to maximize shareholder value. Those ways included selling DataTrak or merging it with another company, as well as strategic partnerships or raising more capital.
In November, DataTrak said it lost $1.6 million(pdf), or 12 cents a diluted share, on revenue of $2.4 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30. The company also said it closed its office in Germany, consolidating Help Desk staff in Mayfield Heights. It also paid severance to six people for eliminating their jobs during the third quarter.
But by the end of last year, DataTrak had pared its costs to the level they were in 2004 when the company last recorded a profit, the company said in Wednesday’s statement. It also had boosted revenue by 12 percent ,and its profit margin to 76 percent from 50 percent by the third quarter.
“While 2008 has been focused on restructuring our operations to more appropriately align DataTrak’s cost structure with our backlog levels and anticipated revenues, we believe we are now in the position to shift our efforts entirely to maximizing operational performance,” Birch said Wednesday.
Green said he expects DataTrak to grow. “Although my decision to step down from my day-to-day role in DataTrak’s operations was difficult, my ongoing conversations with Larry, the executive team and the rest of the board leaves me with great confidence that the strategy this team has implemented will enable the company to capitalize on its long-term growth opportunities,” Green said in Wednesday’s statement.
Despite its positive financial momentum, DataTrak was notified by the NASDAQ Capital Market in early December that the company did not meet the market’s $2.5 million minimum for shareholder equity. That means  NASDAQ could delist DataTrak’s stock.
Later that month, DataTrak settled litigation related to its 2006 acquisition of ClickFind Inc., eliminating a $3 million balloon payment that would have been due next month.
DataTrak shares were down 5 cents to 14 cents Wednesday in early afternoon trading. The company’s shares traded for about $1.60 a year ago.
