Force10 VP Walks to Woven

At least one of the departing Force10 Networks Inc. executives has found a new home, as Michael Langley is being named vice president of sales at Woven Systems Inc.

Langley, formerly Force10's vice president of North American sales, is one of three executives who have left recently. The others were VP of finance Gary Arango and vice president of worldwide sales Mark Cooper. (See Force10 Hit By VP Exodus.)

Before that, vice president of marketing Andrew Feldman, under SEC scrutiny, left the company citing personal reasons. And Force10 swapped out CFOs last year, bringing in Karen Blasing to replace Ralph Harms, who's now working with chip firm Transmeta Corp. (See Feldman Out at Force10 and Force10 Names CFO.)

All this movement is curious, because Force10 is assumed to be readying an initial public offering -- which might explain the CFO changes but makes the other departures look odd.

A competitor to Force10, Woven sells a 10-Gbit/s Ethernet fabric aimed at the data center. (See Woven Readies 10-Gig Switch.)Woven officials, attending the Interop show in Las Vegas this week, weren't immediately available for comment. Langley wasn't either, as he's taking time off before officially starting at Woven, a Woven spokeswoman says.

Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading