Bluesocket CEO Unplugged

Attention job seekers!

Enterprise wireless LAN startup Bluesocket Inc. is on the hunt for a new CEO. Only experienced candidates need apply.

The firm's CEO Eric Janszen has quietly left the firm after three years to return to being a venture capitalist at Osborn Capital LLC. Janszen is apparently looking for another young startup to take under his wing.

A spokesman for Bluesocket says the firm's board is looking for a permanent replacement with more experience leading a company. In the meantime, the firm has settled on Peter Smith as "executive chairman" to run the business in the interim.

Its been a busy old time for management reshuffles in the enterprise wireless LAN market. Other than Bluesocket, Aruba Wireless Networks and Trapeze Networks Inc. brought new head honchos onboard, while Vivato Inc. has lost another couple of executives (see Trapeze's New Swinger, LeBeau Dons Aruba Crown and Vivato Loses CTO, VP). And who can forget the stratospheric rise of Bike Manic to the giddy heights of marketing VP at Trapeze (see Trapeze's Wireless Wobbles). [Ed. note: Can you tell we like this joke?]

Bluesocket says that it picked Smith because of his stint as CEO at publicly traded engineering simulation software firm Ansys Inc. (Nasdaq: ANSS) until 2000. "Eric… turned over the reins of power at Bluesocket to someone with CEO experience," explains the company spokesman.

The company actually slipped out the news of Smith's appointment to the executive chair on Christmas Eve. "We were pretty low-key about it," admitted the company spokesman. "You can be sure that we'll make a big stink when the new CEO comes onboard."

There's no word on when exactly Bluesocket might announce a new leader, but spokesboy hopes it will be within the next six months.

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung