Conexant Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNXT) today announced that board member D. Scott Mercer has been named chief executive officer. The company also announced that Christian Scherp, senior vice president of Worldwide Sales, has been promoted to president, and that Sailesh Chittipeddi, senior vice president of Global Operations, has been promoted to executive vice president of Global Operations and chief technical officer.
Mercer and Scherp replace Daniel Artusi, who had been president and chief executive officer. Artusi will be leaving the company to pursue outside opportunities.
“We are fortunate that an executive of Scott’s caliber and experience has chosen to become Conexant’s next chief executive officer,” said Dwight W. Decker, non-executive chairman of Conexant’s board of directors. “Scott has been a Conexant director for the past five years, so he is intimately familiar with the issues facing our company. I am confident that he will provide the strategic leadership Conexant requires to attain the next level of performance.”
Mercer, 57, will continue as a company director.
“I want to thank Dwight and the Conexant board for giving me the opportunity to lead the company,” Mercer said. “Over the past three quarters, the Conexant team has done a good job of reducing costs and improving financial performance, and we must continue to drive progress in these areas. Our highest priority right now is to determine the best way to deliver increased value to customers and shareholders. I am looking forward to working with Christian, Sailesh, and the rest of the senior team in the coming weeks to evaluate our market and financial positions, and to establish a clear strategic direction for our company.
“I would also like to thank Dan for his service, and wish him the best in his future endeavors,” Mercer said.
Mercer serves on the boards of Palm, Inc., Polycom, Inc., SMART Modular Technologies, Inc., and Adaptec, Inc., where he is chairman. In 2005, Mercer was named interim chief executive officer at Adaptec. Before that, he spent a total of eight years at Western Digital Corporation in positions that included executive vice president, chief financial and administrative officer, and senior vice president and advisor to the CEO. He also spent a year at TeraLogic, Inc. as chief financial officer, five years at Dell, Inc. in a variety of financial-management positions, and seven years at LSI Logic Corporation, where he was promoted to chief financial officer. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the California Polytechnic University at Pomona, Mercer spent seven years with Price Waterhouse in San Jose, Calif.
In his new position as president, Scherp, 42, will report to Mercer and be responsible for the activities and results of Conexant’s three business units in addition to managing the company’s global sales force. Prior to joining Conexant in June 2005, Scherp spent eight years with Infineon Technologies North America. In his last position at Infineon, he served as vice president and general manager of the company’s Wireless/Wireline Communications Group. He was also vice president of marketing for the Wireline Communications Group, and vice president and general manager of the Communications Group’s wide area networking business. Before Infineon was spun-off from Siemens AG in 1997, Scherp spent six years in a variety of positions in engineering, marketing and business planning at Siemens. He holds a master’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering, and a master’s degree in business administration from the Technical University of Munich, Germany.
Chittipeddi, 45, joined Conexant in June 2006 as senior vice president of Global Operations. In his new role, Chittipeddi will report to Mercer and be responsible for Global Operations, Quality, Worldwide Manufacturing Engineering, Design Platform Engineering, and Purchasing. Prior to joining Conexant, Chittipeddi held several senior operations-related positions with Agere Systems, Lucent Technologies, and AT&T Microelectronics. He also served as Lucent’s SEMATECH representative, and was a member of the Technical Staff with AT&T Bell Labs. Chittipeddi holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s degree and a doctorate in physics from Ohio State University, and a master’s degree in physics from Northern Illinois University. He also holds 59 U.S. patents related to semiconductor process, package, and design, and has authored nearly 40 publications.
About Conexant
Conexant’s comprehensive portfolio of innovative semiconductor solutions includes products for Internet connectivity, digital imaging, and media processing applications. Conexant is a fabless semiconductor company that recorded revenues of $809 million in fiscal year 2007. The company is headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif. To learn more, please visit www.conexant.com
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“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release includes forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by phrases such as Conexant or its management “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “foresees,” “forecasts,” “estimates” or other words or phrases of similar import. Similarly, statements in this release that describe our business strategy, outlook, objectives, plans, intentions or goals also are forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements.
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