Ex-CEOs Find Good Life After Leaving Top Jobs

To paraphrase the lyrics of a popular song, you can't keep a good CEO down.

Some of the most visible CEOs at communications companies have landed on their feet with important new jobs.

Gary Forsee, the former chairman and CEO at Sprint Nextel, is now the president of the University of Missouri. Last week, he was appointed to the board of Great Plains Energy, the parent company of Kansas City Power & Light. Forsee was at the helm of Sprint when the firm acquired Nextel in a merger that was followed by a $30 billion write-off and layoffs of thousands of employees.

Forsee made a huge bet on WiMax, and Sprint believes the bet eventually will pay off as the technology is now being deployed across the US.

Edward Zander, the former chief executive of Motorola, landed an important position this week as a board member of EagleView Technologies, which utilizes detailed aerial photography to measure solar, fencing, roofing, and other hard-to-see areas. Last month, Zander joined videoconferencing provider Iocom as a member of its board of advisers.

Zander, who came to Motorola with a storied background in computer companies Sun Microsystems and Data General, never got communications company Motorola rolling. Sales, profits, and employee rolls dropped until billionaire investor Carl Icahn applied intense pressure and Zander left.

Arun Sarin, Vodafone's former chief, is still out in the cold. Vodafone generally thrived under his leadership, although the worldwide economic meltdown is currently taking its toll on the world's largest cell phone service provider.

Sarin is playing it cool and hasn't taken a permanent position since he announced he was leaving Vodafone last May. He is credited with turning around Vodafone, largely focusing on building up emerging markets as targets for cell phone service. The executive search rumor mill was buzzing with reports last week that Yahoo wanted Sarin as its next chief executive, but now the rumor mill says he doesn't want the job, possibly because Yahoo could be divided if Microsoft is successful in its long quest to pick up Yahoo's search function.

Sarin, a native of India, attended graduate school in California and even sat on Cisco Systems' board with Jerry Yang, who recently departed Yahoo as its chief executive. Yahoo isn't expected to name a new head until after the new year.

As for Yang, he is said to be fielding new job opportunities as the CEO merry-go-round continues its eternal circle.

As executives shift around, it's important to know how much they're worth. InformationWeek U.S. IT Salary Survey 2008 can help. Download the report here (registration required).