(COMTEX) B: Company Hires Three Other Former Compaq Executives -- Can
B: Company Hires Three Other Former Compaq Executives -- Canion lead investor
in Tricord
Dec. 11, 1998 (Computer Reseller News - CMP via COMTEX) -- Plymouth,
Minn. -- Former top Compaq Computer Corp. executives continue to land
in the oddest places.
After leading a mass exodus from training-software vendor GK
Intelligent Systems Inc. in August, Compaq co-founder Rod Canion and
some longtime Compaq friends have moved on to Tricord Systems Inc.,
based here.
Tricord reached an agreement with the former Compaq chief executive
earlier this week in which Canion will be the lead investor for a $3
million private placement. The deal is expected to close on Dec. 18.
Although it is not part of the placement deal, Canion is bringing
other former Compaq executives to Tricord.
Tricord's major software product is designed to make data sharing
more transparent across storage area networks (SANs).
David Cabello, former senior vice president and general counsel at
Compaq, will assume a similar role at Tricord. Cabello had been at GK
with Canion in between his Tricord and Compaq stints.
Two former Compaq marketing executives also are making the move to
Tricord. Kathleen Clark will be vice president of marketing, and Lewis
Schrock will be director of product marketing.
Cabello and Tim Harris, a former Compaq vice president, exited
Houston-based GK with Canion in August. Cabello, Clark, Harris and
Schrock all have invested in Tricord, said executives at the company.
Canion's interest in Tricord is simple, said Tricord Chief Executive
John Mitcham.
"Rod Canion and I have known each other for 30 years. Rod's doing
this because he has confidence in the management team and also because
he has confidence in the technology," Mitcham said.
Tricord shifted gears from servers to storage in 1997, focusing on
solving storage-management problems, according to a report from Summit
Strategies Inc., a Boston-based market research firm.
"People were probably more familiar with Tricord as a server vendor,"
said Mitcham. "We started to look at the value moving forward, and we
saw storage as an important part of server sales and as a follow-on to
server sales," he said.
That technology allows VARs and their customers to dynamically manage
storage resources and to share storage resources among all servers on a
network, he said.
SANs will play an increasingly important role in the Windows NT space
as customers cluster servers, said Tom Lahive, senior analyst with
Dataquest, a San Jose, Calif.-based market-research firm. Data sharing
will be a crucial technology going forward, he said.
Canion, who was not available for comment, left Compaq in Oct. 1991
following the company's first-ever quarterly loss. At the time, critics
in the industry argued the likable, down-home Canion lacked the drive
to take Compaq to the next level. Eckhard Pfeiffer replaced him as
chief executive and president of the Houston-based PC maker.
The visionary Compaq co-founder recognized the importance of the IBM
Corp. PC and built his company around the industry standards ushered in
by IBM, analysts said.
Is Tricord the next Compaq? Are SANs the technology that will make
the next Compaq successful? Tricord executives would not speculate.
But investors seemed to like the idea of having Canion's financial
backing in Tricord. The company's stock skyrocketed last week on the
news.
After closing at just 66 cents per share last Monday, Tricord's stock
soared a whopping 279 percent on Tuesday to close at $2.50 per share.
And the buying continued Wednesday, with Tricord shares closing at
$2.97.
---
MOVING FROM TEXAS TO MINNESOTA
Compaq co-founder ROD CANION (right) put his financial muscle behind
Tricord last week, when the company said he was the lead investor in a
$3 million private placement. Three other former Compaq executives
joined Tricord.
David Cabello, former senior vice president and general counsel of
Compaq; new vice president and general counsel at Tricord.
Kathleen Clark, former marketing executive at Compaq; new vice
president of marketing at Tricord.
Lewis Schrock, former marketing executive at Compaq; new director of
product marketing at Tricord. |
