HP NAS VP Skis Off

Another exec is winging his way away from Hewlett-Packard Co.'s (NYSE: HPQ) storage group, with Roger Archibald, previously VP of NAS products, becoming the latest to depart.

Archibald confirmed, in an email to Byte and Switch, that he is leaving HP. "I am looking forward to spending less time on planes and a little more time at home," he wrote. "With a season pass in hand, I also plan on spending more time on the ski slopes."

He added, "This will give me a little time to look around and see what new and exciting opportunities could use a little help and my experience."

An ex-HP executive, who wished to remain anonymous, suggests that Archibald was pushed out in part because of "not being a team player" during the integration of HP and Compaq. Archibald declined to comment on this.

An HP spokesman would not comment on the circumstances of Archibald's exit. But he noted that Archibald's replacement is Harry Baeverstad, director of the NAS business segment, who will report directly to Bob Schultz, VP of the Network Storage Solutions unit. [Ed. note: We assume Harry is no relation to our own Bob the Beaver.]In any case, the departure of Archibald is more evidence that the management of HP's storage group has been in flux the past few months. In May, HP merged its server and storage groups, putting Schultz, formerly VP of storage marketing, in charge of the storage side. Howard Elias, who was appointed general manager of the storage group when the HP/Compaq merger closed in April 2002, is now senior VP of the Enterprise Systems Group's Business Management and Operations unit (see HP Fuses Server, Storage Units).

Mark Sorenson, VP of the HP's storage software group, resigned two weeks ago to join EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), where he was hired to the newly created position of senior VP for information access and recovery software (see HP Exec Bolts for EMC).

At EMC, Sorenson reports to Mark Lewis, executive VP of open software operations, who is himself an ex-HP'er (see Lewis Quits HP for EMC). In his new role, Sorenson will oversee the development of the company's access and recovery software, giving customers "the ability to access, manage, and protect information from inception to archive to disposition," according to EMC (see EMC Hires Sorenson, Promotes Two).

Todd Spangler, US Editor, Byte and Switch