Startup says the software VP has departed after all

April 23, 2004

1 Min Read
Aruba Admits Software Switch

Enterprise wireless LAN startup Aruba Wireless Networks has confirmed that its VP of software engineering -- Michael Lin -- is leaving the company, just days after it said he wasn't going anywhere (see Aruba Denies Veep Drain).

"There was a miscommunication," says Keerti Melkote, VP of product marketing. Melkote says that Lin's departure is a mutual decision.

The new guy in the software seat is Steve Alexander, who used to work at wireless router startup, Tahoe Networks, which was bought by Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) late last year (see Nokia Sweeps Up Tahoe).

Alexander's speciality at Tahoe was subscriber management software. But -- despite Tahoe's exclusive focus on cellular networks -- Melkote claims that such features are applicable to the enterprise 802.11 world. Corporate customers want more sophisicated ways of managing users and applying policies on different parts of the WiFi network, he says.

Alexander and Kent Headrick, Aruba's VP of hardware engineering, were both at Shasta Networks together, Melkote notes. And, despite rumors to the contrary, Melkote says that Headrick is staying on at Aruba.

But perhaps the level of talk about changes at Aruba isn't all that surprising. According to various sources Unstrung has been speaking to, the firm's new CEO, Don LeBeau, is bringing on new people at quite a pace.

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung

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