The route between becoming an IBM corporate high-flyer and the exit has become dramatically shorter, and following the departure of Ellen Hancock last week, another who was still seen as coming executive, Bob LaBant, has left the company. He is said to be resigning his position as head of US sales because Loius Gerstner’s latest reorganisation sees creation of a combined global sales force and Ned Lautenbach, head of international sales was preferred over LaBant to head it. IBM watchers expect to see more big name departures, citing the chief strategist James Cannavino, and OS/2 supremo Lee Reiswig as to others who may not be long for the IBM world. John Thompson, who currently runs large systems hardware, gets the formidable task of trying to put IBM’s floundering software businesses on the map.The high-end hardware division becomes the server group, taking in mainframes, AS/400s and RS/6000s, and will be run by Nick Donofrio. The new highest-ranking woman at IBM is Linda Sanford, who becomes general manager of System/390 mainframe systems; Irving Wladawsky-Berger is in charge of Power Parallel Systems.
