Unisys hopes ex-Gateway chief can turn it around
Unisys on Tuesday announced that it has named J. Edward Coleman as its new chief executive.
J. Edward Coleman
(Credit: Gateway)Coleman will take on the roles of chairman and CEO. He replaces Joseph McGrath, who served as CEO for the past three years, and whose departure was announced last month. Henry Duques will step down from his position as chairman of the company's board but will become lead director instead.
In a statement, Unisys touted Coleman as a master of corporate transformations and turnarounds. Most recently, he served as CEO of Gateway for a little more than a year. In that short amount of time, he managed to work out a deal with Acer to buy the troubled PC maker. He has more than 30 years' experience in the IT industry and has held executive positions at CompuCom and Arrow Electronics.
"(Coleman) has a strong track record of helping IT companies successfully narrow their business focus and build on core strengths to drive revenue and earnings growth," Unisys' statement said. "Throughout his career, he has shown himself able to drive change from vision to execution, with a proven focus on operational improvement."
He'll have his work cut out for him. For most of the year, Unisys' stock has stayed below the $5 mark, and the company has faced declining revenues.
Jennifer Guevin is assistant managing editor of CNET News. She focuses on science and green tech. But she also makes the occasional contribution to CNET's kitchen gadgets blog or writes about the latest Web distraction. Once a week, she takes the mic as host of CNET's Daily News Podcast. E-mail Jennifer. 
- by exgateway October 8, 2008 8:37 AM PDT
- This guy was the biggest loser CEO we ever had at Gateway. Total maroon. Made millions destroying Gateway and selling the very successful professional division to a bunch of broke potato farmers who ruined it.
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