Thursday, 3 August 2006

Symantec CTO Joins CA

Symantec’s Chief Technology Officer Dr. Ajei Gopal has left the company to join CA as senior vice president and general manager of Enterprise Systems Management business unit.

Gopal, who joined Symantec in 2004, is the latest in a long line of executives to leave the company including the chief financial officer, chief information officer, and chief operating officer over the last year.

At CA Gopal will succeed Alan Nugent, who was recently named CA's chief technology officer and will report to Russell Artzt, CA's executive vice president of products.

At CA, Gopal will focus on extending the company's position in managing systems, networks, databases and applications for mainframe and distributed environments.

The top management changes in Symantec would hardly worry the investors said ICAP analyst Richard Williams.

Symantec is facing fierce competition from rival Microsoft, which poses a greater threat to the company compared to its management changes, Williams said.

Gopal’s departure from the company is unlikely to change the way Symantec handles these issues, said Mr. Williams. "The issues in front of Symantec are pretty locked in place, and a few people leaving won’t alter that trajectory," he said.