Novell Announces Executive Appointments

Novell today announced it has hired a new executive to run its Linux and open source business unit, and promoted two current executives. Roger Levy has been named general manager of the Open Platform Solutions business unit, reporting to Jeff Jaffe, executive vice president and chief technology officer. Levy joins Novell from Lucent Technologies, where he held a number of executive development and business positions. Levy replaces David Patrick, who will be pursuing interests outside of Novell. In addition, Novell announced that Bill Hewitt, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, has been promoted to president, Novell Asia-Pacific, responsible for Novell's operations in China, India, Japan, southern Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Hewitt succeeds Rhonda O'Donnell, who will assume the newly created position of non-executive chairperson, Novell Asia-Pacific. John Dragoon, vice president of global field marketing for Novell, has been promoted to senior vice president and chief marketing officer, succeeding Hewitt, responsible for Novell's marketing strategy and activities worldwide. Hewitt, Dragoon, and O'Donnell will continue to report to Ron Hovsepian, president and chief operating officer, Novell.

"These appointments leverage the strength of a world-class development executive and two experienced Novell leaders,” said Hovsepian. “Roger brings a passion for building new businesses to his new position, and both Bill and John have played key roles in our transformation. I expect all three executives to make significant contributions to our business in the future".

Levy brings 27 years of experience with Lucent in the development and delivery of technology solutions for large enterprises. Most recently, he held the position of vice president, product realization, responsible for product delivery for four internal startups spanning the markets of routing, mobile applications, enterprise security and service provider network security. In addition, Levy held the position of vice president, Software Technology Center, where he led Lucent's open source initiative, driving the establishment of an open source policy, creation of processes to leverage open source, and definition of open source acceptance tests. Levy holds a Bachelor of Science in physics from Lafayette College and and Master of Science in computer science from Georgia Tech.

Hewitt brings over 20 years of experience in the hardware, software and services sectors to his new role at Novell. Prior to Novell, he served as group vice president, Global Theater Marketing, at PeopleSoft, and also held the position of group vice president, Industry Solutions, and vice president, Global Product Marketing. Prior to PeopleSoft, Hewitt headed sales and marketing for Brigade Corporation and was senior vice president of marketing for ProBusiness Services, both General Atlantic Partners backed companies. Hewitt held the top marketing post at Hyperion Software and spent ten years in sales, marketing and management positions with the IBM Corporation. Hewitt holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the Boston University School of Management.

O'Donnell has served as president, Asia Pacific, for Novell since 2001, when Novell acquired Cambridge Technology Partners, where she was a managing director. Prior to Cambridge, she was managing director of Global Customer Solutions, a subsidiary of TXU, one of the world's largest energy utilities. O'Donnell is involved in a number of advisory boards and government committees, and is the recipient of the Victorian Business Woman of the Year. O'Donnell holds a master's degree in innovation and service management.

Dragoon brings over 21 years of high technology operations experience to his new role at Novell. Prior to Novell, Dragoon was senior vice president of marketing and product management at Art Technology Group (ATG) where he was responsible for all aspects of ATG's product plans and strategy, product marketing, and corporate marketing. Dragoon started his career at IBM, where he spent more than 16 years in a number of marketing and sales positions, including director of marketing, IBM Supply Chain Management Solutions. After IBM, Dragoon served as vice president, operations, Internet Capital Group. Dragoon holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science and economics from Union College and an MBA from Cornell University.