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MTI Keeping Board at 6

Tustin-based MTI Technology Corp. plans to keep its board of directors at six members after losing three directors in the past three weeks, Chief Executive Thomas P. Raimondi said.

“There’s no urgency to replace the members,” Raimondi said. “If we do so, it will be done so in an orderly manner.”

Raimondi called MTI’s board “strong” at six members. The board includes Raimondi and five non-executive members.

Among them is Lawrence Begley, a former Razorfish Inc. executive who joined MTI’s board in February.

MTI sells data managment software from EMC Corp., which also is an investor.

The three departing directors all were tied to Utah’s Canopy Group Inc., MTI’s largest shareholder at about 42%.

Canopy, an investment company started by former Novell Inc. executive Ray Noorda, has just come through a battle that pitted family members versus managers.

Two of the managers, Ralph Yarro and Darcy Mott, were MTI directors who resigned a day before a settlement with Noorda family members was reached.

As part of the settlment, Yarro and Mott had to severe ties with nearly all companies Canopy had invested in.

Tragically, the third MTI director, Valerie Noorda Kreidel of Huntington Beach, died in an apparent suicide on March 17, days after the settlement was reached.

MTI is “saddened by what happened,” said Raimondi, who added he had known Kreidel for years.

Kreidel, who left behind a husband, four daughters and a son, was elected an MTI director in 1994. She had worked as an analyst for Canopy.

Yarro was elected a director in 2000. Mott joined MTI’s board in 2002.

Yarro was Canopy’s chief executive until he was ousted in December. Mott was chief financial officer until then.

The ouster of Yarro, who once worked at Novell, and other executives prompted lawsuits between them and the Noorda family.

Yarro sued, charging that Noorda’s vote to fire him wasn’t understood by the ailing founder. Noorda, one of Utah’s richest men valued at $500 million, is 80 and has Alzheimer’s.

The Noorda family, led by Kreidel, took issue with stock options and bonuses awarded to Yarro and other Canopy executives.

*See related story,

MTI Loses Directors in Canopy Fight

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