Ximian Gets a New CEO

By Michael Hall,
LinuxToday

GNOME company Ximian, Inc. has
announced that CEO and co-founder Nat Friedman will be leaving his
post and stepping into the role of Vice President of Product
Management to make way for David Patrick, who will assume the
responsibilities of CEO and President of the company.

Prior to joining Ximian, Patrick was president of worldwide
sales and operations for the consumer software maker The Learning
Company. He originally joined WordStar International, a predecessor
to The Learning Company, in 1990 as executive vice president of
development, marketing and strategic planning, and went on to
become WordStar’s COO. In 1994, WordStar merged with Softkey and
the combined company went on to complete 25 acquisitions, including
The Learning Company and Broderbund. The new entity assumed The
Learning Company’s name and Patrick continued in executive sales
and operations roles. During his period with The Learning Company,
he helped grow it to $900 million in revenue.

Prior to The Learning Company, Patrick served as vice president
of worldwide sales and marketing for the Tops networking division
of Sun Microsystems, where he was responsible for the worldwide
launch of the company’s personal computer networking products. He
was previously president and chief operating officer of Migent
International, a consumer software company, and held a variety of
senior sales and marketing positions for Ashton-Tate. Patrick began
his software career at Lotus Development Corporation during the
launch of the Lotus 1-2-3 product.

Patrick is on the board of LogoWire, a promotional products
company, and ThinkingBytes, a company developing database and
software applications for the Palm Pilot. He is also an active
member of the Boston CommonAngels, an early-stage angel venture
group.