Even as Motorola Inc. makes some key new hires, such as co-CEO Sanjay Jha, other executives continue to exit.
Chief Information Officer Patty Morrison left the company last week. Morrison joined Motorola in 2005, during former CEO Edward Zander’s tenure, from Office Depot Inc. She previously was chief information officer at Quaker Oats in Chicago.
Morrison was replaced by Motorola veteran Leslie Jones, who came to the company in 2000 when it acquired set-top box maker General Instrument Corp. The chief information officer oversees the company’s computer networks.
Motorola’s management ranks, especially those in senior technology roles, have been turned upside down since Zander announced in November that he was leaving and the board of directors later decided to break up the company.
Padmasree Warrior, the company’s CTO, departed in December for the same job at rival Cisco Systems Inc. Richard Nottenburg, another Zander hire who inherited Warrior’s duties, soon departed for the CEO post at a small telecommunications company in Boston.
Jha, who joined Motorola on Monday as head of its phone business, is expected to make a few key hires as well, further shaking up the executive suite. He will share CEO duties with CEO Gregory Brown as they prepare to split the company into two publicly traded entities.
They’ll do it without the services of Don McLellan, senior VP of corporate development and strategy, who left in June. The former Winston & Strawn lawyer oversaw acquisitions but also played a crucial role in the spinoff four years ago of Motorola’s chip business, which became Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
In addition to the wave of leadership changes, there have been deep cutbacks across the company, topping 10,000 jobs worldwide since 2007. Brown, who expects to cut Motorola’s expenses by about $1 billion this year, told Crain’s Chicago Business last week that he isn’t planning more layoffs beyond the 2,600 announced in April.
But analyst Ping Zhao, of CreditSights Inc., says Jha will have to further cut headcount to match Motorola’s overhead to its shrinking sales. The company, which has slipped to No. 3 worldwide in mobile phone market share, is expected to sell nearly 30% fewer phones this year than in 2007, analysts estimate.
“The business is grossly oversized . . . and needs additional cost reduction to bring expenses in line with its current and future marketshare,” Zhao wrote in a research note this week after Jha’s appointment was announced.
John Pletz is a reporter for Crain’s Chicago Business, a sister publication to RCR Wireless News. Both publications are owned by Crain Communications Inc.
