ShoreTel ends CEO hunt with Blackmore appointment

IP telephony vendor nabs Peter Blackmore from UTStarcom as permanent replacement for departed John Combs

ShoreTel's five-month search for a new chief executive ended today with the appointment of former Compaq and Unisys man Peter Blackmore.

Blackmore (pictured) replaces John Combs, who departed in July. Since then senior vice president of worldwide sales Don Girskis has served as interim leader. Girskis now returns to his day job.

Blackmore arrives at ShoreTel from IP TV specialist UTStarcom, where he also held the role of chief executive. Prior to that, he was worldwide sales, marketing and technology chief at Unisys and he has also served as executive vice president of HP's Customer Solutions Group and its Enterprise Systems Group.

He joined HP in 2002 when the vendor bought Compaq, where Blackmore had been for 11 years, rising to a position as worldwide head honcho for sales and services.

"ShoreTel has a solid reputation for industry-leading solutions and world-class customer satisfaction, and I am thrilled to be joining the company," said Blackmore. "I look forward to working with the entire ShoreTel team to help the company continue to accelerate its growth and achieve its tremendous potential."

Gary Daichendt, chairman of the board at ShoreTel, added "Peter brings a wealth of hardware, software, services and channel expertise to ShoreTel. His track record of successfully scaling technology organisations worldwide makes him the right leader to accelerate ShoreTel's growth."