Vernier: Third CEO's the Charm?

Enterprise wireless LAN appliance startup Vernier Networks Inc. is on its third CEO, as Matthew Powell -- the man hired a year ago to build "global, high-growth sales" for the firm -- has left, Unstrung has learned.

A Vernier spokesman says that Powell's departure was a mutual decision between him and the company's board: "Basically, what it came down to was that he and the board together decided that it wasn't a good fit."

Powell is being replaced by Bruce Coleman, one-time CEO of enterprise systems management software house Boole & Babbage Inc., which was eventually swallowed up by BMC Software Inc. (NYSE: BMC) back in 1999 (not while Coleman was at the helm).

Coleman is a software industry veteran who has been CEO -- or interim CEO -- of more than a dozen companies. Recently, he appears to have specialized in stabilizing the businesses of former dot-com boom poster children, such as Stamps.com.

Sources also tell Unstrung that there have been more top-level changes at Vernier, but the company's spokesperson was unable to confirm any details. "We really don't comment on people coming and going from the company, as that's just simply life in the Silicon Valley," he writes in an email.

Though Vernier has made no official statement about any changes, the lineup of suits on the company Website looks rather different now from how it did in 2003.

This is not the first time that Vernier has swopped heads: Sales guy Powell replaced Vernier's original propeller head CEO, Doug Klein, in January of 2003 (see Vernier Appoints CEO). Klein remains on board as the firm's CTO.

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung