This article is from page 3 of the 2007-06-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
WITH the technology sector coming under increased pressure in recent months, one Clare man has bucked the trend this week by being appoint- ed to one of the most senior positions in California’s Silicon Valley. Clarecastle’s Tim Leyden last week rejoined IT giants Western Digital, and will take over as Chief Finan- cial Officer (CFO) for the company, which is the worlds second largest producer of hard disks, on Septem-
ber 1, 2007.
Fifty-five year old Leyden is a sen- ior figure in the global software sec- tor and joins Western Digital from Sage Software where he was a Senior Vice-president and Chief Financial Officer.
This is Leyden’s second time at Western Digital having previously worked there from 1983 to 2000 in a variety of different capacities. He will be joining fellow Irishman, John Coyne, at the company which has more than doubled its revenues from
$2 billion in 2000 to $4.3 billion in paul eToys
“IT am delighted to welcome Tim back to the Western Digital team and look forward to having him work closely with me in addressing the tremendous opportunities available to Western Digital as the world’s sec- ond-largest supplier of hard drives,” said Western Digital CEO, John Srey sites
‘“Tim’s deep knowledge of the com- pany, its finances and operations and the hard drive industry will be major
assets to me and to the entire West- ern Digital organisation.”
Western Digital is currently consid- ered one of the most profitable firms in Silicon Valley. In recent years it was moved from making losses of $188 million to an income of $396 million, which has swelled it invest- ments to $699 million and posting one of the IT industry’s leading re- turns on invested capital in the proc- ess.
Coyne took over as CEO last No- vember and has acted early in an-
nouncing Leyden as successor for outgoing CFO, Steve Milligan.
Leyden will serve as Executive Vice President for Finance, reporting to Milligan until September 1, but will take full control before that date should Milligan decides to leave his post earlier than planned.
After leaving Western Digital for the first time, Leyden joined Sage Software in 2001 and also worked as a management consultant to tech- nology based companies such as Pit- tiglio, Rabin, Todd and McGrath.