Michael Borman, IBM's top software sales executive, has been tapped to become the new CEO of Avocent, a Huntsville, Ala.-based developer of IT infrastructure management systems. Borman, who was also named to Avocent's board of directors, started in the job this week.
Borman, 53, replaces John Cooper, who retired as Avocent chairman and CEO on March 31. Ed Harper, who has been serving as interim CEO, will continue to serve as the company's chairman.
At IBM Borman oversaw worldwide sales for IBM's $20 billion software business and was responsible for a sales force of more than 15,000. He aggressively competed against arch nemesis Oracle, famously telling ChannelWeb in October that he was actively hiring people "to go kick [Oracle's] teeth in." In November CRN named Borman one of the industry's most innovative executives.
Borman was among CRN's Top 25 Most Innovative executives in 2007.
Before assuming the software sales job at IBM Borman served as general manager of the company's i-Series and p-Series server product lines. He first joined IBM as a programmer in 1977 and held other management posts at the company. Borman also once served as president and chief operating officer at Blue Martini Software.
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