IT Confidential: New Territory, Talent Drain, Style Points

Roy Dunbar, CIO of Eli Lilly, has been promoted to president of intercontinental operations, where he'll be responsible for a sprawling territory that includes Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Mexico, and parts of South America. Four years ago, Eli Lilly CEO Sidney Taurel plucked Dunbar from a marketing-management job to be the company's CIO despite having no business-technology background. Taurel thought Eli Lilly's IT group had become too technology-driven and wanted an outsider who'd force it to align better with business efforts. Mission accomplished, I guess. The new CIO, Mike Heim, is a Lilly IT insider, having started as a systems analyst and serving as chief technology officer since 2002.

Hewlett-Packard last week bid farewell to another top executive, Jeff Clarke, executive VP of global operations. Clarke was responsible for HP's global supply chain, procurement, logistics, E-business, and customer operations. Clarke was the CFO of Compaq when HP acquired it a year and a half ago and is credited with helping smooth HP's integration of the PC vendor. HP, which recently reported its first yearly profit since its acquisition of Compaq, has been shedding management talent lately like Democratic presidential candidates shed campaign managers. Another former HP executive, Mary McDowell, last week took the job of senior VP and general manager of Nokia's enterprise solutions unit. McDowell also came to HP from Compaq, where she had been senior VP and general manager of Compaq's industry-standard server group. At HP, she was the company's senior VP of strategy and corporate development.

Speaking of former Hewlett-Packard execs, Patty Azzarello, former head of HP's OpenView business, has been named CEO and president of Euclid, an IT-optimization software vendor. Azzarello most recently had been senior VP and chief marketing officer of Polycom, a voice and video conferencing company. Before that, Azzarello was senior VP and general manager of HP's $1 billion software business. IT-performance-management software is a hot market, as companies look to measure and enhance the productivity gains they get from technology.

Broadwing Communications last week named Pete Crocitto as its new CIO. Crocitto comes to Broadwing, a WAN services provider, from Deloitte Consulting, where he was global technology solutions director, and before that from Oracle, where he was VP of technical services. Crocitto will report directly to Broadwing CEO Mark Spagnolo.

For those of you keeping track, the Microsoft versus Lindows.com trial has been delayed until March 1. The trial, which had been scheduled for a Dec. 1 start date, concerns Microsoft's trademark of the product name "Windows." Microsoft sued Lindows, which markets a Linux-based operating system, LindowsOS, and a productivity suite, Lindows Office, in December 2001 for violation of its Windows trademark. However, the court has twice denied Microsoft's request for an injunction against use of the Lindows name.

Hey, you gotta give 'em style points. What else were they going to call it—Windux? Do you have a better name? Or an industry tip? Send it to [email protected] or phone 516-562-5326. If you want to talk about management promotions, executive departures, or tangling with Microsoft, meet me at InformationWeek.com's Listening Post: informationweek.com/forum/johnsoat.

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