Banyan ditches CEO in massive revamp

Heads are rolling as the networking company seeks a leader with salesand marketing expertise

Networking vendor Banyan has sacked its founder, chairman and CEO David Mahoney as part of a huge restructure which includes 100 redundancies and a $7 million reduction in channel inventories.

The company said Mahoney's departure was due to his lack of sales and marketing expertise. It admitted that the job cuts amount to making 15 per cent of its workforce redundant.

Peter Westra, Banyan director of EMEA, said Mahoney's leadership had been in the area of technology and innovative thinking. 'Banyan is a technology leader,' he said, 'but lacks the sales and marketing skill to take advantage of this lead. The time has come for someone with talent in this area to head the company.'

He said Banyan expected to find a CEO within three months.

Banyan plans to reduce product shipments to the channel in its Q4 by $7 million to $10 million to reduce worldwide channel inventories. This will result in a lower turnover and a loss for the quarter ended 31 December.

It expects restructuring charges of $3 million to $5 million in the quarter to pay for the severance costs of about 100 staff and other related costs.

Banyan senior VP and CFO Jeffery Glidden has been named acting president and COO. He will report to John Burton, who has been appointed chairman and will direct the CEO search.

Mahoney, who has run the firm since he started it in 1983, will become vice chairman of the board of directors. John Paul, senior VP, has resigned to pursue other opportunities, Banyan said.