Motorola Loses A Bit More Of Its Mojo
By Judy Mottl | May 20, 2008
Just when you thought maybe the revolving door at Motorola's executive offices had finally been shut down comes news that Richard Nottenburg, executive VP and chief strategy officer, has resigned and left the building.
According to a Motorola spokesperson, "Nottenburg decided to leave Motorola to return to the New York area to be with his family and pursue new opportunities."
Dan Moloney will now be running Motorola Labs "which will continue to support all Motorola businesses, with the dual focus of developing advanced solutions in support of the businesses��� product roadmaps as well as researching innovative, next-generation technologies."
Up until that point you kind of have the idea that Nottenburg made the decision to leave. But then read this final note from Motorola corporate PR:
"*These changes support our continued efforts to more closely align technology development with our businesses*."
It may seem like just another VP persona jumping ship before the ship sinks.
But it's really much more than that given Nottenburg's pedigree.
Nottenburg, who oversaw corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, Motorola Ventures, business intelligence and new initiatives, joined Moto as an advisor in 2004 and then came onboard fultime as senior VP and chief strategy officer.
Prior to Motor he was VP and GM at Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: VTSS) after it merged with Multilink Technology Corporation in 2003.
For eight years he served as president and CEOof Multilink, a publicly traded company and leading provider of advanced mixed-signal and VLSI solutions that accelerate the deployment of 10Gb/s optical networks.
During his earlier days as a tenured associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California he built a successful research program funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the U.S. Air Force and industrial sources.
Back in the 80s, while at AT&T Bell Laboratories, he co-invented 988 was the world's fastest transistor.
Now Moloney isn't any lightweight either - heck he's managed to hang on at Motorola since joining in 1983 as part of the corporate financial and planning staff.
Up until last week he was running the company's Home & Networks Mobility business.
All I do know for sure is that the person in charge of keeping business cards up to date must be yearning for a needed vacation at this point.
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