Chairman & CEO Roles Combined at Lenovo
Yang Yuanqing, 47, the CEO of Lenovo, has regained his role as Chairman of the company. He replaces Liu Chuanzhi, the founder of Lenovo, who took the title in 2009 after a period of economic downturn. Yang joined Lenovo in 1989 as a salesman and became CEO a mere 12 years later. He was appointed Chairman in 2004.
Lenovo has also appointed John Zhao, 48, the SVP & Director of Legend Holdings, as Non-Executive Director. In addition to Legend Holdings, Zhao also serves as the CEO of Hony Capital, a China-focused private equity firm. Prior to Hony, he served as CEO at eGarden Venture Capital, Chairman & CEO at Infolio, and VP & GM at US Robotics.
HP Elects Lead Director; Prominent Shareholder Joins the Board
Rajiv Gupta has been selected as the company’s new Lead Independent Director. He has been on the HP Board since 2009. Currently, Gupta serves as the Chairman of Avantor Performance Materials, a chemical manufacturing company, and as a Senior Advisor to New Mountain Capital, a private equity firm. Earlier in his career, he served as Chairman & CEO of Rohm and Haas, a specialty materials producer. While at Rohm and Haas, he also held the titles of Vice Chairman, Director of Electronic Materials, and VP & Regional Director of the Asia-Pac Region. Gupta also sits on the board of directors of Delphi Automotive, Tyco, and Vanguard.
HP also elected activist shareholder Ralph Whitworth to its Board to help shore up investor confidence. Whitworth’s company, Relational Investors, holds about 17.5 million HP shares. Prior to founding Relational Investors, he served as the Chairman of Waste Management and Apria Healthcare Group. From 1986 to 1994, Whitworth was the President of United Shareholders Association. Whitworth has served on a variety of boards, including Tyco, Genzyme, Mattel, Sovereign Bancorp, Tektronix, HP, and Sprint.
Director at Emerson Electric Resigns
Carlos Fernandez Gonzalez, 45, has resigned from the Board of Directors at Emerson Electric. Currently, Fernandez is the Chairman & CEO of Grupo Modelo, a brewery holding company. He is also a director of Anheuser-Busch and Grupo Televisa.
Intel CFO on Autodesk Board
Autodesk announced that Stacy Smith, 48, has been appointed to its Board. Currently, he serves as Intel’s CFO & SVP of Finance. Smith joined Intel in 1988 and has held a variety of titles at the company, including GM & VP of Sales for EMEA, CIO, VP of Finance & Enterprise Services, and Assistant CFO. He also serves on the Board of Gevo, a developer of bio-based alternatives to petroleum products.
CAD/CAM Company Appoints Academic to Board
Cadence Design Systems has elected James Plummer, Ph.D to its Board of Directors. Plummer is the Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the Stanford University School of Engineering. He also serves on Intel board. He has focused his research in the areas of high-voltage ICs and high-voltage IC structures, silicon process modeling, and nanoscale silicon devices for logic and memory throughout his career at Stanford. Plummer began teaching in 1978 as an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford and was appointed Dean of the School of Engineering in 1999.
Mobile Internet Solutions Company Loses Board Members
Comverse Technology announced that Raz Alon, 48, has resigned from the company’s Board. Most recently, Alon was the Director of M&A at Merrill Lynch. He has also served as the Chairman of Ulticom, a telecom provider, and TopView Ventures, an investment firm. Earlier in his career, he was a Director at SG Securities, a US-based M&A and merchant banking business unit of Societe General.
Joseph O’Donnell, 64, has also decided to leave Comverse’s Board. O’Donnell is the former CEO of Inmar, a leading provider of technology-driven logistics and supply chain software and services. Prior to joining Inmar, he was the CEO & Chairman of Artesyn Technologies, a supplier of power conversion equipment and real-time embedded computing solutions to telecom equipment suppliers. Earlier in his career, he served on the board of directors at Boca Research, Cincinnati Microwave, MTS Systems, PTC, Superior Essex, and V Band.
Date range: October 28th - December 1st
