Novell loses its CTO

Another senior Novell executive has flown the coop. The company confirmed last week that CTO Alan Nugent had departed to join “another company” (as yet unnamed). While it isn’t odd that yet one more senior exec has jumped shipped, the timing is certainly strange – just a week before BrainShare at which, typically, the CTO plays a major role.

In years past, CTOs like Chris Stone and Carl Ledbetter were the major announcers and explainers of products and services. It will be interesting to see who takes that position this year. Although, as I mentioned in the last issue, it appears that all the major announcements have already been made.

Speaking in eCommerce Times, IDG analyst Al Gillen said: “I don’t see [Nugent’s] departure on an individual basis as being of concern, but in the context of Chris Stone’s departure last year, this trend represents brain drain that is disappointing for a company that seems to be poised for a rebound.”

There does seem to be a faster turning revolving door in Novell’s executive suite than at many other technology companies. Some of this is tied to all of the acquisitions the former networking leader has made over the past three to four years. After each acquisition (SilverStream, Ximian, SuSE – all the way back to the “merger” with Cambridge Technology Partners in 2001), the executives of the acquired company have moved into the upper management positions with Novell. Some of the later ones have pushed out some of the earlier ones, also. But, as far as I know, no one was angling for Nugent’s job – or Stone’s job, for that matter. And Novell has yet to replace Stone, who departed four months ago. Maybe the real problem person is still in Waltham at the company’s HQ.

Next week I’ll let you know what I can find out about this, as well as what else in the way of new developments came out of BrainShare. For now, though, if you aren’t in Salt Lake City you should be playing with your new test installation of Open Enterprise Server.