QLogic Corp. Chief Executive H.K. Desai has handpicked his successor, an IBM Corp. veteran who’s set to learn the ins and outs of the company’s data networking business.
Earlier this month, Jeff Benck took the posts of president and chief operating officer,the latter a first for the Aliso Viejo maker of electronics for data storage networks.
“Our business is becoming extremely complex,” Desai told analysts in a conference call last month. “We decided that we needed to upgrade our management team.”
Benck reports to Desai, who gave up the president’s title and remains as chairman and chief executive. Desai has run QLogic,one of the county’s largest technology companies by market value,since its 1994 spinoff from Costa Mesa’s Emulex Corp.
QLogic, which had a market value of $2.75 billion last week, makes switches and host bus adapters that speed the flow of data on computer networks.
The company has been looking for a No. 2 for about a year and half, Desai said.
Benck most recently oversaw the group that develops IBM’s server and storage products. He had about 1,400 workers under him.
The group specializes in blade servers, which are inserted into a computer room rack to deliver a lot of power and storage in a compact package.
For more on this story, see the May 14 edition of the Business Journal.
