Former Symantec CEO Joins Microsoft Board; Former Cisco SVP Named VP

Microsoft announced that John Thompson, 62, has joined the company’s Board. Currently, Thompson serves as the CEO of Virtual Instruments, a provider of virtual infrastructure and SAN optimization. Before joining Virtual Instruments, he was the Chairman & CEO of Symantec. Earlier in his career, Thompson held senior leadership positions at IBM, including GM of IBM Americas. He currently serves on the board of directors at UPS, Seagate Technology, and Teach for America.

Cisco Hires SVP for New Division

Cisco announced that it has hired Chris Young to serve as SVP of the newly formed Cisco Security Group. Young comes to Cisco from VMware, where he was the SVP & GM of End User Computing. At VMware, he was responsible for strategy, products, engineering, and delivery for all end user computing solutions. Prior to joining VMware, Young was SVP at RSA, the security division of EMC. He also sits on the Board of Directors for Rapid 7, a provider of security risk intelligence solutions.

Former Governor Joins Oil & Gas Exploration Company

Continental Resources appointed former North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer, 65, to its Board. Schafer was elected North Dakota's 30th governor in 1992 and served for two terms. In 2008, he was nominated and confirmed as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. During his term as governor, Schafer also served as Chairman of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, which is comprised of all energy-producing states. Before his political service, he was the President of Gold Seal, a distributor of household products. Schafer was also the co-founder and CEO of Extend America, a telecommunications company focused on rural connectivity in the Midwest.

New Chief Medical Officer at Dell

Dell announced that Dr. Andrew Litt has been named as the company’s new Chief Medical Officer. Most recently, Litt served as the Head of Litt Healthcare Ventures, a consulting firm for private equity firms seeking to invest in healthcare. Prior to Litt Healthcare Ventures, he was EVP, Vice Dean & Chief of Staff of New York University’s Langone Medical Center. Before assuming the title of EVP, he served as Vice Chair for Financial Affairs in the Medical Center's Department of Radiology. Litt is a Board Member of CareCore National, a company which provides utilization and quality management programs for managed care companies.

HARDWARE 

HP Promotes Division Executives

HP has promoted Stephen DiFranco, former GM of the Solutions Partner Organization, to the role of SVP & GM for the Americas region of its Personal Systems Group (PSG). DiFranco joined HP from Lenovo, where he served as VP of Consumer and Commercial Channels. Prior to Lenovo, DiFranco held senior marketing positions at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Maxtor. DiFranco will replace Stephen DeWitt, who has been named SVP & GM of the webOS Global Business Unit. Prior to his promotion, DeWitt was leading the Personal Systems Group Americas region. He joined the company in 2008.