Jeff Benck has joined Costa Mesa-based Emulex Corp., two months after abruptly leaving rival QLogic Corp. of Aliso Viejo.
Benck is joining Emulex as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He’ll oversee engineering, marketing, operations and sales at the maker of electronics for data storage networks.
He’ll report to Emulex Chief Executive Jim McCluney.
In March, Benck stepped down as president and chief operating officer of QLogic, after about a year on the job.
Sources familiar with the situation said he couldn’t come to terms with QLogic Chief Executive H.K. Desai and the board over when he’d take over running the company.
QLogic and Emuelx make host bus adapters,a profitable bit of electronics that speed the flow of data on networks of computers. The two companies control about 80% of the market for host bus adapters.
Emulex didn’t bring up the prospect of Benck running the company in its release announcing his hiring.
McCluney turns 57 next month and has led the company since 2006 and was president and chief operating officer since 2003.
At QLogic, Benck was widely liked by analysts, who said he had good rapport with the computer makers that are customers of QLogic and Emulex.
Before QLogic, Benck oversaw the IBM Corp. group that develops server and storage products. He had about 1,400 workers under him.
When Benck stepped down from QLogic, he told the Business Journal he planned to stay in Orange County.
