Bob Robertson, the man tipped to replace Bruce Thompson as managing director of Hewlett-Packard Australia, has thrown HP's plans into disarray by taking a regional CEO's job with Lucent Technologies. It is understood that Robertson's job as vice president of sales for HP's Enterprise Computing Group became redundant after a recent reorganisation and that Robertson was to return to Australia, where Bruce Thompson has decided to retire from the managing director's job after five years in the chair.
Instead, however, Robertson has accepted a job as an Asia/Pacific CEO with Lucent Technologies. At Lucent he will work with expatriate Australian Mike Butcher - or as the Americans prefer to put it, Michael J (Mike) Butcher - who in May was given increased responsibility as president of international sales for Lucent's Service Provider Networks Division.
Butcher, in his extended role, has responsibility for all of Lucent's sales and marketing activities in the service provider networks arena for Europe, the Middle East and Africa; the Caribbean and Latin America; and the China regions. Until Robertson's arrival he was also CEO of Technologies Service Provider Networks in the Asia/Pacific region. Butcher joined Lucent in 1997 from EDS, but Australian old timers may remember him from his tenures at Datapoint, Alcatel and even Wang or perhaps Olivetti.
Executives shuffled as CEO quits Melbourne ITProfessor Peter Gerrand, the founding CEO and managing director of Melbourne IT, has resigned and will leave the company at the end of this month after making a "quality-of-lifestyle" decision. He had been with the company four-and-a-half years, and will continue to have an input through a consultancy agreement.
To cope with Gerrand's departure the company has restructured its senior management into a team of three, in which COO Adrian Kloeden has been given the CEO's job. At the same time, Clive Flory has been appointed president of international operations for Melbourne IT's domain name business Internet Names Worldwide, and CFO Andrew Field will become a "core executive" in the new team.
It is clear that the moves are intended to pacify the stock market, which has savaged Melbourne IT's prices since the company acknowledged last month that domain name registration is not a bottomless gold mine, and that equally lucrative alternative revenue sources are few and far between.
Brian Davis appointed Jtec boss
Brian Davis has been appointed executive chairman and CEO of Jtec, a subsidiary of telecommunications services provider Techniche that specialises in the design, development, procurement, manufacture, assembly and testing of telecommunications equipment and systems. Davis has been involved in the telecommunications and IT industries in the US and Australia for more than 30 years. In 1994 he was appointed CEO of Nortel Networks for Australia and New Zealand, and he was recently chairman of the ATIA.
Davis will also become deputy chairman of the board of Techniche, which has undergone some other changes, with Rod Cormie stepping down as chairman but retaining a seat on the board, and Surrey Bogg being appointed chairman.
Around the traps
Tipsters are suggesting big changes are due at Telstra. D Day, it is rumoured, will be November 4 - the Saturday before the Melbourne Cup. Note it in your diary now.
AOL Australia, the joint venture between America Online and AAPT, has appointed Dr Brett Wayn managing director. He joined the company from Beyond International in 1997 and was most recently general manager and director of content and programming.
LookSmart, the Internet search engine with its roots in Australia and its shares on NASDAQ and the ASX, has appointed Helen Hollyoak finance director of its Australian operation. She joined the company from Britannica.com.au.
Alison Watkins has been appointed managing director of personal e-commerce at ANZ. She was previously the bank's group general manager of strategy and marketing and replaces Satyendra Chelvendra, who has taken six months long service and study leave and will return to a new position.
Changes to the board of online broker E*Trade have seen Arthur Havers appointed to the board to replace Jarrett Lilien, who has resigned. Mathias Helleu, who was previously alternate director for Lilien, will also be alternate for Havers, who is managing director of international business development at E*Trade.
Microsoft loses another exec
Paul Maritz, the man behind a host of Microsoft's products and strategies, has announced that he will retire after 14 years with the company. He had begun cutting back on his duties a year ago to focus more on technical strategies and developer relations and plans to retain links with the company as a consultant after his retirement.
Other executives to leave Microsoft in the past year include CFO Greg Maffei, Windows boffin Brad Silverberg and research chief Nathan Myhrvold.