Novell Inc. continued to shuffle its executive deck last week with the departure of four more officials.
The departures, made one day after Chief Technology Officer Carl Ledbetter was named senior vice president for engineering/research and development, are part of an ongoing executive-level restructuring taking place at Novell, said officials of the Orem, Utah, company.
Separately, Novell officials said Chairman and CEO Jack Messman was hospitalized in Provo, Utah, for a bleeding ulcer and partial blockage of heart arteries.
Novell is consolidating responsibility for engineering, R&D and product management under Ledbetter, who will keep his CTO title.
Departed are Paul Smart, vice president and general manager of Net Directory Services, and Craig Miller, vice president and general manager of the Net Management Group. Both are at least eight-year veterans at Novell; Smart came aboard as part of Novells merger with WordPerfect Corp. in June 1994.
In addition, a former Cambridge Technology Partners Inc. executive, Marty Deise, has left his post as senior vice president of solutions. Deise was responsible for Novells go-to-market strategy for solutions, along with solutions development and implementation.
Last week, Novell also announced the departure of Chief Operating Officer Stuart Nelson.
Ledbetter, now with products recentralized in his bailiwick, reports to Chris Stone, who late last month was named vice chairman in the office of the CEO of Novell.
Stone, a former Novell executive who left to found Web services software company Tilion Inc., takes over responsibilities for engineering, marketing, product management, alliances and consulting.
Still undecided are the organizational changes that will result from the executive shuffle.
Messman is expected to remain in the hospital for several days. It is unclear when he will return to work. Novell doesnt expect that Messmans health issues will affect the company, and a Novell spokesman said his health issues had no bearing on the executive shakeup.
