Dismissed Hewlett-Packard Execs Land On Their Feet

Jim Milton, the former Hewlett-Packard vice president who was abruptly terminated by HP in August, has found that what goes around, comes around. And around and around, it seems. Milton recently jointed UGS as executive vice president of Global Sales Operations.

In an interview Friday, Milton said his prior experience as an executive at HP, Compaq, and Digital Equipment Corp. is all playing into his new post at UGS, a recent spin-off from EDS. "My HP background helps directly at UGS," he said. "I have a lot of relationships already. Relationships carry on."

When HP failed to meet its numbers last August, Milton and two other top HP executives were let go on the spot. Peter Blackmore, former executive vice president of HP's Customer Solutions Group, has joined StreamServe as an advisor to the company's board of directors. The third HP executive, Kaspar Rorsted, is in Europe and was unavailable.

Milton believes he is a good fit for UGS's focus on product-lifecycle management (PLM), with more than 3.1 million licensed seats and 42,000 clients. "UGS is very different than HP," he said. "UGS is focused exclusively on software and services. UGS is already the leader in the evolving PLM market, and I plan to leverage my experience in the IT industry to further that leadership by focusing. . .efforts on promoting the value of PLM at the enterprise level. This is the next frontier, not only for UGS, but for the PLM industry as a whole."

UGS said Milton will run the firm's sales and alliance efforts on a global basis, while operating with the company's geographic zone and automotive sales units.A native of Canada, Milton cut his engineering teeth at the Digital Equipment Corp., where he became one of that firm's youngest vice presidents ever. Later, Milton moved to Compaq Computer when that firm acquired Digital Equipment. Still later, HP acquired Compaq. Milton said he has found many comfortable relationships at UGS, because the firm traces much of its original history back to McDonnell Douglas computer operations, which was a heavy user of Digital Equipment gear.

HP watcher Terry Shannon, publisher of Shannon Knows HPC, said HP should be relieved that Milton and Blackmore did not pick up jobs at IBM or Dell, which compete directly with HP. Shannon said that Blackmore is "a very adept salesman and communicator." Sweden-based StreamServe is accelerating its activity in the U.S., promoting its business communication focus providing two-way exchange of critical business data in different channels and formats.