President of Quiksilver, Surf Apparel Maker, Resigns : Sportswear: Resignation a year after joining firm follows layoffs of five managers. Shaheen Sadeghi plans more time with family and his own business ventures.

The president of surf apparel maker Quiksilver Inc., Shaheen Sadeghi, resigned Monday to spend more time with his family and to start his own business ventures.

Sadeghi’s departure, coming a year after he joined Quiksilver from rival Gotcha Sportswear Inc. in Irvine, followed the layoffs last week of five middle and senior managers at the Costa Mesa company.

Quiksilver Chairman Robert B. McKnight Jr. said that Sadeghi’s departure is “pretty much unrelated” to the layoffs and that it was motivated more by personal concerns.

“He needs a rest from the corporate environment,” McKnight said. “He wants to get out of the big corporate loop.”

Sadeghi, 38, also resigned from Quiksilver’s board of directors. No successor will be immediately chosen as president, and McKnight said he hopes to push down much of the authority in running the company to other top executives.

Quiksilver stock closed at $5 a share, down 25 cents, following the Sadeghi announcement.

McKnight praised Sadeghi as someone who helped Quiksilver refine its products and marketing. “The company has come a long way toward getting its product back on track. He’s had a large part of that,” McKnight said.

A marketing specialist, Sadeghi worked for four years at Gotcha, including three as executive vice president, before joining Quiksilver. Before that, he worked for Jantzen Inc. in Portland, Ore., for eight years.

Under his Quiksilver employment agreement, Sadeghi was to be paid a base salary of $350,000 a year. He also received a signing bonus of $100,000, with other service and performance incentives.

Sadeghi, reached at home, said the resignation was “purely my decision and obviously a difficult one.” At 38, he said he wanted to spend more time with his pregnant wife and pursue “some projects important to me.”

He said he told McKnight that he would be happy to continue to work with Quiksilver on special projects. He added that he was happy to have left the company positioned for growth, with a healthy balance sheet.

Analysts have lauded the company for cutting back on staff and expenses as the recession worsened. Quiksilver earned $1.5 million for the quarter ended April 30, off 55% from a profit of $3.3 million, for the same quarter last year. Sales were $28.9 million, down 19% from $35.5 million in the the second quarter of last year.

Sadeghi declined to comment on whether he agreed with the recent decision to dismiss five top managers, saying it was “Bob’s decision.”

Those laid off included Steve Tully, vice president and national sales manager; Andrea Barkley, chief of Quiksilver’s T-shirt division; Bruce Barber, the head of the Pirate Surf division; Carole Orem, international controller, and Debbie Fay, who was in charge of customer service. The company announced the layoffs July 13.

The company said other managers will be able to take over the duties of those laid off.