Nick St. George falls on his sword.

• Position: Resignation as chairman and CEO of Oakwood Homes Corp.

You know you're in trouble when you put a for-sale sign on your company and no one calls. That's what happened to Greensboro-based Oakwood Homes Corp., which put itself in play in June. After getting no serious nibbles, its board of directors took the company off the market in August and put Chairman and CEO Nick St. George out to pasture.

St. George, 60, is retiring Sept. 30, closing two decades of building the Greensboro-based company into an industry leader, only to see it stumble the last year. "This has been a planned transition in leadership," he said in a press release. "I have been considering retirement for some time and have been working with the board of directors on a succession plan."

William Edwards, 55, who was named president and chief operating officer in December, replaces St. George and inherits the task of pulling Oakwood out of its slump.

"I think it is going to be a long haul to turn this thing around," says Michael Corelli, an analyst with Du Pasquier & Co. in White Plains, N.Y. Hit with sagging sales and problems in its finance division, the company figured the best way out was a merger with another company or a sale to a management group. Given the...