Riverstone's new CEO completes sweep of the management and the board of directors
December 9, 2003
Question: The company you've founded is suffering from falling revenues, is besieged with scandal, is losing market share, and is badly in need of a makeover. What do you do?
Answer: Spend more time with your family, of course!
That's what Riverstone Networks Inc. founder Piyush Patel announced he would do as he resigned from Riverstone's board of directors this week (see Riverstone Founders Leave Board).
Riverstone founder Romulus Pereira also resigned from the company's board, the company announced Monday, leaving the board without a chairman. Pereira had also served as the company's president and CEO until Oscar Rodriguez's appointment in August.
Whatever the reasons publicly given, it's abundantly clear that Rodriguez and the new Riverstone management team want to put a new stamp on the company, and the departure of Patel and Pereira completes a clean sweep of Riverstone's leadership. Rather than fill the chairman of the board post, the company has appointed an independent director as a "Lead Director" to keep an eye on the board.
The turnover is not surprising, as Riverstone has had its share of bumps this year:
Riverstone Disappoints the Street
SEC Calls on Riverstone
Accounting for Riverstone's Problems
Riverstone Ailing in Asia
Riverstone Branded 'E' by Nasdaq
Kern Decreases Riverstone Stake
Riverstone Readies Restatement
Riverstone Restates, Stock Falls
Riverstone Oops! Level Rises
Nasdaq Delists Riverstone
Riverstone in Debt Dustup
But that's all in the past, and, though Rodriguez and his new team have been quiet so far, observers are confident that they're capable of cleaning up the mess left by Pereira, Patel, and the ancien régime.
Table 2: Riverstone Management Team, as of 5/2002
Name | Title |
Romulus Pereira | President and CEO |
Robert Stanton | Executive VP and CFO |
John Kern | Executive VP, Worldwide Sales and Service |
Suresh Gopalakrishnan | Executive VP of Engineering |
Andrew Feldman | VP of Corporate Marketing and Development |
Source: SEC filings |
Table 3: Riverstone Management Team, as of 12/2003
Name | Title |
Oscar Rodriguez | President and CEO |
Roger Barnes | Executive VP and CFO |
Scott McMillan | VP of Operations |
Praveen K. Mandal | VP of Engineering |
David Ginsburg | VP of Marketing |
Source: Company data |
Several nagging questions remain. First of all, is all this cleanup happening too late? "How far have Extreme Networks, Foundry Networks, and Cisco Systems gotten during Riverstone's time of disruption?" asks Chet White, an analyst with Merriman Curhan Ford & Co.
The company does have something to build from, though. As noted in a recent survey of carrier employees and executives conducted by Heavy Reading, Riverstone gets high marks from incumbent service providers as a metro Ethernet supplier.
Table 1: Metro Ethernet Equip. Ratings by 69 Incumbent Carrier Respondents
RANK | VENDOR | RECOGNITION | PRICE | PERFORMANCE | QUALITY & RELIABILITY | SERVICE & SUPPORT |
1 | Riverstone | 36.2% | 16.2% | 16.3% | 17.5% | 9.3% |
2 | Extreme | 46.4% | 8.1% | 4.7% | 2.5% | 2.3% |
3 | Foundry | 43.5% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Source: Heavy Reading |
Riverstone declined to comment for this piece, citing its end-of-quarter quiet period.
— Phil Harvey, Senior Editor, Light Reading
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