Attal Exits IBM For Gateway

Attal will join Gateway on Sept. 15 as an executive vice president of business, becoming the fifth member of the company's newly formed senior management team that is headed by company founder and CEO Ted Waitt.

"Jocelyne is one of the industry's brightest leaders and brings enormous strengths and talents to Gateway," said Waitt, in a statement this week. "Her extensive experience dealing with tens of thousands of businesses and institutional customers will significantly bolster our already profitable business segment activities."

The move will likely be construed as a blow to IBM. Attal is vacating the very high-profile post of vice president for IBM's on-demand operating environment, a job she held for the past six months and one that sits at the epicenter of the company's overarching e-business on-demand efforts. Why Attal chose to leave such a position is still unclear. Reached Tuesday, IBM officials declined to comment on Attal's departure, but did say that a search for her replacement is ongoing.

Attal has a venerable history with Big Blue. Before being tapped for the on-demand job, she served as vice president of marketing for IBM's WebSphere product line, which she is widely credited as putting on the map both from a technical and branding perspective. Before that, she immersed herself with partners as IBM Software's vice president of worldwide channel sales and marketing.

At Gateway, Attal joins a senior management team whose members have come on board during the past year, all in an effort to resurrect the financially struggling company. Those individuals include Rod Sherwood, executive vice president and CFO, who had been with Loudcloud (now Opsware); Joe Formichelli, executive vice president of operations, formerly with IBM; and Scott Edwards, executive vice president of consumer, who came from Sony. The fifth member of the team, Bob Burnett, executive vice president of products, is a 10-year Gateway veteran.

This story couresy of VARBusiness.