Novell Streamlines Euro Management
Shake-out at the networking giant puts Richter in sole charge of Europe and reduces the number of area heads
Novell has gone through another restructure, overhauling its European management team last week and abolishing its operating board, leaving Roland Richter to head Europe.
Willy Soehygen, who shared the running of Europe with Richter as a member of the operating board, is understood to have been forced out in the reshuffle after he left suddenly two weeks ago. The changes, due to come into effect on 1 May, occurred after Ron Heinz, senior vice president of worldwide sales, visited the UK last week.
One industry source said: ?It has shuffled the cards again. It had the holy trinity, which was the operating board, then Jocelyn Attal went, now Willy, so it has only got Richter left.?
As part of the consolidation, the number of staff reporting directly to Richter has been reduced from 15 to six. Instead of 15 area heads, there are now three regional heads: Tom Schuster, vice president of Northern Europe; Andreas Zeitler, who was promoted from director to vice president of Central Europe; and Andreas Brun, who was promoted from director to vice president of Southern Europe.
Tony Hall, who will fill the recently created role of head of EMEA marketing; Alistair Aitchison, head of product marketing; and Bryn Jenkins, head of channel sales, will also report direct to Richter.
Heinz said: ?We now have six people reporting into Roland instead of 15 people reporting into the operating board.
?Obviously for those people who?ve been knocked down a notch it?s not that much fun, but if you?re running a business you need one executive in charge, so everybody understood that we needed to make that change.?
The operating board was formed less than a year ago to echo the US management structure. The board initially consisted of three regional vice presidents.
One source said: ?Heinz is new to his job. He?s probably building his power base while Eric Schmidt [Novell?s CEO] gets himself up and running.?