H.K. Desai, the longtime chief executive of Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp., said Thursday he’s set to step down after some 15 years at the helm.
QLogic’s board appointed finance chief Simon Biddiscombe as his successor.
The company said Biddiscombe will take over the top post and get a board seat next month in a “planned transition.”
Biddiscombe has been QLogic’s senior vice president and chief financial officer since early 2008, when he was recruited from a similar post at Newport Beach chipmaker Mindspeed Technologies Inc.
The company also announced that Doug Naylor, currently vice president of finance, will act as interim chief financial officer. QLogic said it’s set to launch an executive search for a new finance chief.
Desai is set to stay as executive chairman, a newly created role in which he will focus on technology, product strategy and continue to work with customers.
”I am very proud of the unique culture we have created at QLogic,” Desai said in a statement. “I look forward to supporting Simon for at least the next three years in my role as executive chairman.”
Desai, 64, hails from India. He is the only leader QLogic has known since its 1994 spinoff from Costa Mesa’s Emulex Corp., its top rival.
The move marks Desai’s second go-around at handing off to a successor. He’s kept succession and retirement plans close to the vest after an initial attempt backfired.
He tried to step back three years ago when he handpicked former IBM Corp. veteran Jeff Benck.
Benck stepped down in 2008 after Desai and the board couldn’t come to terms on succession timing. He was quickly scooped up by Emulex as senior vice president and chief operating officer.
In August, Emulex bumped up Benck to the president and chief operating officer post.
Benck oversees the company’s engineering, marketing, business development, operations and sales organization.
He also helps with corporate strategy and is focused on diversifying the Emulex product portfolio.
Although the promotion is a subtle one, it puts Benck clearly next in line to Emulex’s Chief Executive John McCluney.
Both companies make electronics that speed up the flow of data on corporate storage networks. Their top customers are makers of large storage systems and servers, including Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, EMC Corp. and others.
The executive shakeup comes on the heels of QLogic’s results for the September quarter, which beat Wall Street’s expectations.
For the three months through Sept. 26, QLogic reported $147 million in sales, up 11% from the same period a year earlier and slightly ahead of analysts’ expectations of $146 million in sales.
Excluding charges for stock compensation, income taxes and other one-time costs, QLogic posted $37 million in profits, up 46% from the year-ago quarter and beating analysts’ expected $35 million in profits.
The company didn’t give an outlook for the current quarter.
Analysts, on average, are expecting adjusted profits of $382 million, up about 13% from the December quarter of 2009, on sales of $156 million, up 4% from the year-ago quarter.
QLogic’s shares were off 3% in afterhours trading on a recent market value of $1.8 billion.
