<side note> Hovsepian is 17 years IBM veteran.
from "Novell Names Ron Hovsepian To Succeed Jack Messman as CEO" ------ He joined Novell in June 2003 as president of North America, and has led the transformation of global field operations since May 2005. Previously, Hovsepian held management and executive positions at IBM Corporation over a 17-year period, including serving as worldwide general manager of IBMÂ’s distribution industries, where he managed global hardware and software development, sales, marketing and services. With stints in various sales and marketing positions prior to taking profit and loss responsibility at several IBM units, he has a proven track record of achieving revenue goals and profit growth in the IT solutions business. He also served as a managing director of Internet Capital Group, a venture capital firm. Hovsepian is currently non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ann Taylor Corporation. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston College. [June 22, 2006] ------ from http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/personinfo/FromPersonIdPersonTearsheet.jhtml?passedPersonId=937221 ------ Ronald W Hovsepian CEO/President/COO/Director at Novell, Inc. Waltham, Massachusetts TECHNOLOGY / SECURITY SOFTWARE & SERVICES Officer since June 2003 Director since June 2006 Financial data from Hemscott 45 years old Ronald W. Hovsepian, Novell's President and Chief Operating Officer since November 2005, joined Novell in June 2003 as President, Novell North America. From May 2005 to November 2005, Mr. Hovsepian served as Executive Vice President and President, Worldwide Field Operations. Before coming to Novell, Mr. Hovsepian was a Managing Director with Bear Stearns Asset Management, a technology venture capital fund, from February to December 2002. From March 2000 to February 2002, Mr. Hovsepian served as Managing Director for Internet Capital Group, a venture capital firm. Prior to that, Mr. Hovsepian served in a number of executive positions with IBM over a 17-year period. Mr. Hovsepian is also the non-executive chairman of the board of directors of Ann Taylor Corporation. Cash Compensation (FY October 2005) Salary $500,020 Bonus $416,000 Latest FY other short-term comp. $0 Latest FY other long-term comp. $2,288,815 Latest FY long-term incentive payout $0 Total $3,204,835 Stock Options (FY October 2005) Number of options Market value exercised n/a n/a unexercised 451,041 $1,783,330 unexercisable 760,959 $720,920 Total 1,212,000 $2,504,250 ------ </side note> http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2062428,00.asp -------- Asked why Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian had done this deal, which would probably have been unthinkable under former CEO Jack Messman, Dragoon said Hovsepian has a background of working at the forefront of the customer agenda and knows what they were looking for. He made the call to Microsoft that was the catalyst for this deal. "That is what customers were asking for," he said. It's also important to note that Novell is not taking criticism from all sides, but rather from just one of its five stakeholder communities, he said. "Of the customer, partner, employee, investor and community stakeholders, four of them think this is the absolute right thing to do. This is an agreement that advances the customer agreement, and I have yet to have a conversation with a client who thinks it is a bad deal. The same can be said for most investors, partners and employees," Dragoon said. But it also appears unlikely that Microsoft is going to back off voicing its assessment of the deal, especially the view that the deal is a validation of the fact that Linux infringes on its intellectual property. Asked if Microsoft plans to be a little less vocal about how it views the deal, Kaefer said that whatever the company said was looked at very carefully, "but I do think it is important for us to be transparent about our views, and we have been unapologetic about the need to share these with Novell and the community," he said. But Kaefer added that the unique aspect of its deal with Novell is that it does not just relate to proprietary products, but to open-source ones as well. The fundamental trick is to do that in a way that gives customers assurance but does not get in the way of what the open source is all about: its development culture and licensing model, he said. "I do think there is a bit of a double-edged standard here where, frankly, there are several corporate backers who are so strongly behind much of the success of the open source community and who have been licensing patents for years and years. "There is a certain recognition among large enterprises that this is a normal and appropriate way of doing things as it promotes collaboration as opposed to getting in the way of it," Kaefer said. Microsoft would also continue to reach out to Red Hat about a similar deal, even though the Linux vendor has rejected that, because they have shared customers who could benefit from such a deal, Kaefer said, noting that Microsoft remains committed to its interoperability agreement with JBoss. -------- :-) regards, alexander. _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
