Silicon Graphics Inc has lost another top dog, this time to San Francisco, California-based multimedia tools house Macromedia Inc, which has decided to go with a two-headed management approach. Rob Burgess, who formerly ran SGI’s Alias/Wavefront subsidiary, has been named president of Macromedia in charge of day to day operations, while Macromedia chief Bud Colligan will remain chairman and oversee the big picture, including strategy and acquisitions. Macromedia won’t have a CEO; the firm says this illustrates Burgess’ and Colligan’s roles as joint chiefs. Burgess met Colligan when Macromedia was porting some of its software to SGI’s platform. Meanwhile, the exodus at SGI has included the defection its COO Tom Jermoluk to the top job at @Home Corp (CI No 2,968), and the loss of its products and technologies VP, Wei Yen, who’s now CEO at Netscape Communications Corp subsidiary, Navio Communications Inc (CI No 2,985). SGI is replacing all of the executives through internal promotions. Asked why executives keep jumping ship, the 11,000 person company cited its managers yearned to be big fish in small ponds.
