BEA Ranks Slim with Marketing Chiefs Departure

BEA Ranks Slim with Marketing Chiefs Departure

Written By
Darryl K. Taft
Darryl K. Taft
Aug 24, 2004
2 minute read
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BEA Systems Inc. has suffered another big-name departure, with chief marketing officer Tod Nielsen set to leave later this week.

In an 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, San Jose, Calif.-based BEA reported that Nielsen would be leaving the company Aug. 26.

Nielsens departure was not unexpected following a series of defections in the upper ranks of the company, most notably Adam Bosworth, former vice president and senior architect at BEA, who went to Google Inc. in late July.

/zimages/6/28571.gifClick herefor more on Bosworths departure.

Bosworth and Nielsen worked together for years at Microsoft, and Nielsen then moved to Crossgain Corp., a company co-founded by Bosworth and later acquired by BEA. In addition to Bosworth, Scott Dietzen, BEAs former chief technology officer, left the company earlier this month.

In the SEC filing, BEA said Nielsen was leaving the company “to pursue other interests.” BEA did not respond to requests for comment on his departure.

Rick Jackson, a vice president of marketing under Nielsen, recently took his talents to Borland Software Corp. Other recent defections include Scott Edgington, former BEA vice president in charge of partner relations, and Erik Frieberg, former product marketing vice director.

Following the news of Dietzens departure, which came just two weeks after Bosworths, “BEA is in a world of hurt,” said Anne Thomas Manes, an analyst with the Burton Group Inc.

/zimages/6/28571.gifClick hereto read an interview with Bosworth before his departure from BEA.

In response to Dietzens exit, BEA chief executive Alfred Chuang wrote in a memo to his staff that Mark Carges, who had most recently been head of global sales for BEA, would assume the role of CTO. And Chuang said he himself would “assume the role of the head of the PLT [Product Leadership Team],” he wrote.

In his memo, Chuang also said he had created a worldwide field organization to be headed by Tom Ashburn.

“Charlie Ill, executive vice president of worldwide Sales, and Tod Nielsen, chief marketing officer, will report to [Ashburn],” Chuang wrote at the time. “This worldwide field organization will include our sales, services and marketing organizations,” he added.

Since then, BEA hired Wai Wong, formerly general manager of Computer Associates International Inc.s Unicenter product group, to lead the companys product development organization.

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