Bowden jumps on exit bandwagon

3Com's saga of job losses is continuing to grow as UK client access marketing manager Bob Bowden joined the stream of resignations from the vendor.

Bowden, who resigned on 14 August, joined Fiona Faulkner, general manager of the client access division, Clive Hudson, vice president of client access products and John Macartney, president of the division, who have all quit the vendor in the past five months.

The vendor has also experienced a high number of redundancies including a clear out of 30 staff in March, coinciding with a divisional restructure (PC Dealer, 11 March).

Andy Palmer, UK managing director at 3Com, refused to elaborate on Bowden's reasons for leaving, but admitted he was seeking a replacement for the role.

Gill Burton, who previously headed up the European client access business unit, has been promoted to UK marketing manager and will take on part of Bowden's role. She will return from maternity leave on 1 October to take over the position.

However, Palmer claimed Burton's appointment did not have any bearing on Bowden's decision to leave. He said: 'Burton is doing a different job in which only a small part will be looking at the channel marketing role.'

But one industry source said: 'Bowden resigned when he was side-stepped by other people.'

Meanwhile, Ingram Micro has lost its exclusive agreement to distribute 3Com's Palm Pilot products after the vendor signed an agreement with distributor Computer 2000.

According to Owain Harries, UK channel manager for the Palm Pilot division at 3Com, the vendor had been in talks with a number of distributors but said: 'Computer 2000 was the best from a portfolio standpoint.'

Commenting on Ingram's 18 month exclusivity on the products, Harries said: 'No distributor would like to relinquish such a franchise but with a greater demand, the need to expand is understood.'