Nortel announced today that two senior executives have
resigned after disagreements with the network equipment maker’s CEO.
The departures of President and COO Gary Daichendt and CTO Gary Kunis are
effective immediately. Both men, who previously held posts at a number of
large IT firms, including Cisco , were just hired by
Nortel in March.
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Gary Daichendt Source: Nortel |
“Gary has made a major contribution to Nortel during his time here and has
added value to our strategic initiatives and business plan,” CEO Bill Owens
said of Daichendt in a statement. “It has become apparent to Gary and me, however, that
we have divergent management styles and our business views differ.”
Owens, a former U.S. Navy admiral hired by the Canadian company to right the
ship after an accounting scandal, will assume the president and COO
responsibilities for now.
“No decisions have been made yet as to whether the position of COO will be
replaced,” Bill Durling, a Nortel spokesman, told internetnews.com.
Owens said Nortel will continue to focus on “operational excellence as a
broad-based carrier and enterprise networking.” In a statement, Daichendt
called the decision to leave difficult, but expressed confidence in Nortel’s
future.
No details were provided about the nature of the disagreements or management
style conflicts between Owens and Daichendt.
Nortel is facing fierce
competition in the network equipment space from traditional rivals in North
America and a new crop of competitors from Asia.