Nortel Appoints Ex-Cisco Exec New President

MANHASSET, N.Y. — Nortel Corp. made more management changes Friday (March 4) as the network infrastructure supplier hopes to put a year of financial woes and turmoil behind.

Nortel (Toronto) appointed Gary Daichendt to president and chief operating officer effective March 14. Daichendt, previously executive vice president of worldwide operations for Cisco, has over 30 years of high technology industry experience.

Bill Owens, president and chief executive of Nortel since April 2004, becomes vice chairman and chief executive.

In addition, Peter Currie, who last month became Nortel's chief financial officer, will also assume a role as executive vice president.

Questionable financial reporting practices forced Nortel to clean house last year, laying off 3,500 employees and firing seven executives. Nortel sued three of those executives last month, seeking the return of $10.5 million in bonus payments.The financial problems forced Nortel to restate its finances for the past few years, which the company finally filed Jan. 11. after several delays late last year.