Ron Hovsepian, President & CEO, Novell - Top 25 Executives

By Paula Rooney, CRN
November 13, 2006 9:00 AM ET

2006 TOP 25: 1-5 | 6-10 | 11-15 | 16-20 | 21-25

During his first 100 days in office as Novell's CEO, Ron Hovsepian has invoked a participative style of leadership with partners, customers and employees, and he has defined his key priority as clarifying Novell's core identity as a Linux distributor and software company. But can he return Novell to its glory days?

The death of Novell's founder and first CEO, Ray Noorda, during Hovsepian's first quarter at the helm was a reminder to many that Noorda's Novell was one of the key architects and backbones of the channel. Now partners are counting on the amiable and cheerful 45-year-old Hovsepian, who is perceived to be more channel friendly than some of his recent predecessors, to provide leadership that will champion both Linux and the channel.

"Ron has articulated a compelling go-forward strategy for Suse Linux Enterprise and has rallied Novell's global team around this strategy. His results-oriented focus will take Suse Linux to a new level," says Trevor Poapst, a channel director at Omni Technology Solutions, a longtime Novell solution provider in Edmonton, Alberta. "Ron is a very credible and personable leader."

Although Novell, Waltham, Mass., acquired IT services firm Cambridge Technology Partners in 2000, its acquisition a year later of Nuremberg, Germany-based Suse—the No. 2 Linux software player—reaffirmed Novell's identity as a software company. And Hovsepian insists that's the way it'll stay. He says that's a big difference between his approach and that of previous CEO Jack Messman. "From a business strategy, I bring a greater focus on the software dimension of our business rather than trying to be a full-service provider," he says.

Hovsepian, who spent 17 years at IBM, joined Novell in 2003 as president of North America, became president and COO and then added the CEO title in June. During his three-year tenure, the father of four and hard-core Red Sox fan helped persuade 80 percent of enterprise NetWare customers to sign OES contracts—the first step to Linux migration. More recently, he hired former Dell executive Steve Erdman to help Novell work with traditional partners and better leverage the global partner networks. And after years of bitter squabbling with Microsoft, Hovsepian initiated a discussion that led to the historic Microsoft-Novell Linux pact earlier this month.

His challenge: The company's revenue continues on a downward slope along with sales of its traditional NetWare line and divestment of its Celerant consulting business. Revenue of $241 million for the third quarter ended July 31 was off nearly 17 percent over the same period a year ago. But on the upside, gross margins and earnings improved along with a shift in its revenue mix from services to software. Moreover, Linux-related sales were up 30 percent to $12 million and Access Management products 46 percent to $26 million. The key trick will be to encourage NetWare customers to move to Linux.

So far, partners say Hovsepian's moving in the right direction. "The partner-facing employees of Novell seem to be very focused on our success, and I can only assume that this attitude is coming directly from Ron," says Paul Anderson, president and CEO of Novacoast, Santa Barbara, Calif.

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