IBM Names New Leaders For Lotus GM Post, IBM Software Sales
Picciano and Rennie told Lotus channel partners about the change Sunday morning during the "Business Day" portion of the Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Fla. A formal announcement of the management change is expected Monday during the first full day of Lotusphere.
The Lotus GM post, officially general manager of Lotus Software and WebSphere Portal, IBM Software Group, has been something of a stepping stone for IBM executives. Picciano was named to the post in April 2008, replacing Mike Rhodin who became general manager of IBM's North East Europe operations. Al Zollar, now head of IBM's Tivoli division, ran the Lotus division from 2000 to 2003.
Rennie, in his earlier development and support post, was responsible for the strategy and development of IBM's collaboration application portfolio. He also led the company's worldwide technical support team that's responsible for customer satisfaction. Before that he led the IBM Lotus Software Services operation, the division's consulting services organization with operations in 35 countries.
Rennie joined IBM in 1989 in the company's Toronto Software Laboratory. He holds degrees in economics and business administration from the University of Western Ontario.
Rennie takes the reins at Lotus at a critical time. With its expanded line up of communications and collaboration applications, some see Lotus " once seen by many as a roadkill victim of the Microsoft juggernaut " as a rejuvenated competitor. CRN named its LotusLive suite of hosted software the best cloud computing application of 2009.
Rennie's task will be to maintain Lotus' market momentum while working with the company's channel partners to add cloud-computing software to their product offerings.