SHORT TAKES

IBM NAMES PALMISANO PRESIDENT, COO

New York, N.Y. — International Business Machines Corp. on Monday said it appointed company veteran Samuel Palmisano as its president and chief operating officer, laying the groundwork for possible succession to Chairman and Chief Executive Louis Gerstner in two years. “Sam Palmisano is now clearly the guy on the runway, he is in position to be the clear successor,” said Sam Albert, an industry consultant and longtime IBM watcher. The company also said it named 57-year-old John Thompson as vice chairman, with both appointments effective Sept. 1. Thompson, for years the head of IBM’s software business, will be responsible for its expansion into areas such as the Internet and wireless technologies. Gerstner, 58, took over as top executive at IBM in 1993 after he was hired as an outsider to shake up a company beset by market share losses, repeated restructurings and a more than 30 percent slump in its stock price. He is credited with turning the company into a diversified supplier of software and services in addition to its historic focus on hardware sales. His employment contract runs through March 2002, his 60th birthday.

Palmisano, 48, who has been with IBM since 1973, had been the Armonk, N.Y.-based company’s senior vice president and executive in charge of IBM’s server business since late in 1999. He was the driving force behind IBM’s push into computer services, now the $88 billion company’s largest business. His new appointment puts him at the helm of all of the company’s operating units. “As we enter the next phase of IBM’s transformation, we need a new organizational approach that will strengthen our focus on both day-to-day marketplace results and future growth opportunities,” Gerstner said in a statement. “This was long overdue at IBM in a lot of respects,” said Laura Conigliaro, an analyst with brokerage Goldman, Sachs. “Many companies that are a lot smaller have operations chiefs. Certainly at a time when everyone is trying to sharpen their focus to be as fast as possible, this makes sense,” she said.

Conigliaro said that succession issues were secondary to the need to broaden the executive team. Fast growing rivals such as Sun Microsystems Inc., EMC Corp. and Network Appliance Corp. all have COOs, she noted. “If Gerstner’s contract lasted for another 10 years IBM would still need a COO,” Conigliaro said. “Sam has pace to him. He is a fast-paced guy who really brings a level of intensity and pace to IBM that I don’t normally associate with the company,” she added. Palmisano and Thompson will report to Gerstner, as do the heads of IBM’s finance, legal, marketing, human resources and communications departments, an IBM spokeswoman said. Thompson is seen as a key corporate strategist at IBM, having spearheaded the acquisitions of software makers Lotus Development Corp. and Tivoli Systems, IBM’s two biggest mergers in the past decade. His new title of vice chairman revives a position that had existed at the company in the early 1990s. Albert said that the appointment of Palmisano and Thompson could be compared in some ways to Microsoft Corp.’s decision to split its top jobs between Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer rather than just having founder Gates at the helm. “I don’t think the job of transforming this company is over,” Salomon Smith Barney analyst John Jones said. “I think Gerstner wants the whole job done by the time he leaves.”

SGI APPOINTS HAROLD COVERT CFO AND CAO

Mountain View, CA — SGI announced the appointment of Harold Covert, 53, as chief financial officer and chief administrative officer. Covert’s most recent assignments were at Red Hat and Adobe Systems, Inc. Covert will report directly to Bob Bishop, chairman and chief executive officer. “I am very pleased to have Hal join our executive management team,” said Bob Bishop. “We are in the midst of a major turnaround at this time, and Hal’s profile fits precisely our need to focus on growth and shareholder value.” Covert brings over 20 years of financial management, administrative and operational experience to the job. Covert has held several senior financial positions in his career, most notably at Adobe Systems, Inc. where he was executive vice president and chief financial officer.

“I am looking forward to applying my expertise in financial and administrative management to SGI,” says Covert. “I am confident that SGI will soon regain the position of computer industry leader, and will achieve revenue growth and profitability in the process.” Covert earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Lake Eric College in Painesville, Ohio and a master’s degree in business administration from Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. Covert is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

3WARE NAMES MCALLISTER SOFTWARE MARKETING DIRECTOR

Palo Alto, CA — 3ware Inc., a pre-IPO company founded to architect innovative storage solutions, announced the appointment of Dave McAllister as director of software marketing. McAllister is an industry-recognized thought leader in Linux technology, having served as a representative to the Linux International board of directors and as a member of the advisory board to Linux.com. McAllister comes to 3ware from Maxspeed Corp., where he served as CTO, driving and defining Linux design for desktop and thin/client systems. Prior to Maxspeed, he was director of strategic technologies for Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), acting as an “evangelist” for Linux acceptance, and defining SGI’s Linux and open source strategy for servers and desktops. Prior to SGI, McAllister served in engineering management and marketing management positions with companies including Ingres Corp. and Digital Equipment Corp.

“We’re very pleased to have Dave on our team,” said Beau Vrolyk, president and CEO of 3ware. “Dave is a respected industry leader in the advancing of Linux technology for desktop and network applications. His vision and experience are a perfect fit with 3ware’s innovative architecture, integrating software, hardware and firmware to meet the storage needs of business users in leading industries.” “3ware’s unique approach meets the massive storage requirements created by the intensive demand for data and graphics for e-business and other applications on the Web,” said McAllister. “I look forward to helping 3ware gain the industry recognition it deserves for its new storage architecture, which provides scalable storage solutions at radically new price points, enabling a new class of information based applications. This technology will change the shape of storage as dramatically as Linux changed the shape of operating systems.”

INTELISYS ADDS MARCHON TO INDIRECT CHANNEL SALES

New York, N.Y. — Intelisys, a leading builder of dynamic e-Marketplaces, has named Don Marchon to the Intelisys executive team as vice president of worldwide indirect channel sales. Marchon has over seventeen years of experience in marketing, product management, research and development and sales with the Hewlett-Packard Company, most recently as a general manager of Hewlett-Packard’s business critical solutions portfolio. Marchon has achieved a consistent record of exceeding sales targets by as much as 300 percent. “Don Marchon is someone you can turn to when you want to drive results,” said Lloyd O’Connor, chief executive of Intelisys. “He is the latest addition to a highly experienced management team that is leading us through a period of tremendous growth.”

At Intelisys, Marchon will be responsible for creating revenue by building the company’s indirect sales channel. A major focus of Marchon’s work will be on Intelisys’ two recently signed alliance partners, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola. In June, Hewlett-Packard selected Intelisys as its preferred e- Marketplace builder and agreed to co-market the Intelisys ConnectTrade solution to customers in targeted markets. Intelisys also signed a strategic alliance agreement with Motorola, which will act as a global reseller for Intelisys. The Intelisys ConnectTrade product suite enables the electronic inter-networking of buyers and suppliers by allowing purchasers to order goods and services online directly from suppliers’ electronic catalogs.

ZILVITIS NAMED TO ANSYS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Southpointe, PA — ANSYS, Inc. announced that Patrick J. Zilvitis, former Chief Information Officer and Corporate Vice President of The Gillette Company, will join the ANSYS, Inc. Board of Directors. Zilvitis’ appointment, which was effective as of July 13, 2000, brings the ANSYS, Inc. board membership to seven. “We’re delighted about Pat joining our team,” said Jim Cashman, President and CEO, ANSYS, Inc. “Pat’s global track record illustrates his understanding of the changes sweeping the high technology industry. His knowledge and background will be a great asset to the ANSYS, Inc. board.”

Zilvitis has served on several boards of directors including Boston Management Consortium, a non-profit organization. He also serves on the following information technology boards: Timex Corporation, Lotus Board of Advisors, Tivoli Board of Advisors, the Information Management Curriculum Advisory Board at Babson College, and the Advisory Council to the MS/MIS Program at Boston University’s School of Management. He previously served on the Board of Directors of International Integration Incorporated (i-Cube) through its IPO and until its acquisition by Razorfish in 1999. Zilvitis is also a member of the Research Board and lectures frequently at the MIT Sloan School. “ANSYS, Inc. is a great organization with a distinct vision of the high technology future focused on the consumer,” said Pat Zilvitis. “I’m happy to join the ANSYS, Inc. team and I look forward to working on the Board at these exciting times.” Pat and his wife live in Boston, Massachusetts. They have four children.

MOONLIGHT ROUNDS OUT EXECUTIVE TEAM

San Francisco, CA — Moonlight Systems, Inc. ( http://www.moonlight.com ), a software company formed in January 2000 that develops native Linux applications, today announced that it had appointed Eric Winner as Vice President of Engineering, reporting directly to Moonlight Systems Chief Executive Officer, Bobby Mukherjee. Winner joins the company immediately, and will lead development efforts for a family of applications for Linux server environments that the company plans to begin delivering in the fourth quarter of 2000. “The opportunity to lead the development of enterprise software for a new company in the booming Linux server marketplace was irresistible,” said Winner. “Moonlight Systems’ commitment to excellent quality and their collaborative strategy to release the source code to their customers is an exciting prospect for me.”

Winner was previously at Resumix – acquired by HotJobs in April 2000 – where, as Director of Engineering, he planned and managed the successful launch of iResumix. Prior to joining Resumix, Winner was at Oracle for 10 years, culminating as Director of Development for the Oracle InterOffice Server product, leading a team of 20 engineers. During his tenure at Oracle, he worked on various important technologies, including the LDAP server, now a part of the premier core database. He was a member of the Oracle8 Performance Team and he worked on the Oracle InterOffice Server, where he played a key role in defining the product features. Winner has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. “At both Oracle and Resumix, Eric was given the job of spearheading development initiatives that were strategic for the companies. He has demonstrated, more than once, that he can lead a team to deliver great enterprise software products on time. His experience, leadership and technical savvy are important assets for Moonlight Systems,” said Mukherjee. “We are pleased to welcome him as a key member of our team.”

FEIGENBAUM TO JOIN ANTS SOFTWARE.COM’S BOARD

Burlingame, CA — ANTs software.com, a developer of advanced technologies to speed up computer processing, announced that Dr. Edward Feigenbaum has joined the Company’s Advisory Board. Dr. Feigenbaum, Kumagai Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, is also Director Emeritus of the Knowledge Systems Laboratory at Stanford. “Dr. Feigenbaum’s information technology industry experience and leadership are unusually valuable additions to ANTs Advisory Board, and we are most fortunate to have him join our quest into the future,” said Frederick D. Pettit, Chairman and CEO. “Dr. Feigenbaum has a distinguished background as a top computer science researcher, strategist, and developer. Furthermore, he has exceptional experience in bringing technology to commercialization. These assets and his network of contacts throughout the information technology industry are expected to provide numerous valuable inputs to our strategic and operational planning.” From 1994 to 1997, Dr. Feigenbaum served as Chief Scientist of the US Air Force at the Pentagon. Dr. Feigenbaum pioneered the development of the expert systems field and participated in the start up of several companies that commercialized expert systems technology. From 1976-81, he was Chairman of the Stanford University Computer Science Department.

“I first became acquainted with ANTs as a result of talks with my former colleague, Dr. Thomas Binford, now head of R&D at ANTs. I found what he described to be intriguing. I have joined the Company’s Advisory Board because I like to be involved in revolutionary IT projects, and ANTs software has the possibility of revolutionizing the speed at which enterprise computing is done.” Dr. Feigenbaum obtained his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University. He is an accomplished author and editor, including co-editing the early anthology, Computers and Thought and the four volume Handbook of Artificial Intelligence, and co-authoring two books about AI and expert systems: The Fifth Generation; and The Rise of the Expert Company. Dr. Feigenbaum was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also elected the second President of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. In 1995, he was awarded the highest research honor of Computer Science, the ACM Turing Award of the Association for Computing Machinery.

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