This Story Posted:
March 3rd

 
 

[4:18 PM]
Former Apple Exec Join Be Board
Be, Inc. has announced the appointment of three executives to their Board of Directors including Lamar Potts who served 11 years at Apple. According to Be:

"As vice president of Internet applications, Lamar Potts is charged with creating a new business opportunity that leverages BeOS' inherent capability as a superior internet appliance OS, while allowing Be to capitalize on significant e-commerce trends in the industry. Potts brings to Be more than 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, channel, business development, finance and operations.

Most recently he operated his own management consulting firm which focused on corporate and business development, creating strategic alliances, and developing partnering strategies. Prior to that, Potts held various management positions in his eleven years at Apple Computer, Inc.

During his final two years with the company, he was the vice president, general manager of Apple's licensing business unit. Potts provided leadership for sales, marketing, operations and to the engineering team that created the first non-Macintosh(R) version of Mac(R)OS that launched Apple into the Mac(R) compatible or clone marketplace."

Be is the manufacturer of the BeOS, a highly optimized operating system aimed at multimedia and other content creators. BeOS runs on PowerPC Macs, excluding the G3, as well as x86 processors.

Good luck to Mr. Potts and Be!

The Mac Observer Spin: Many Observers will remember that Be was the other candidate when Apple was looking for an OS to buy to replace the MacOS. The victor in that contest was of course NeXT which included Steve Jobs in the deal.

At that time the BeOS ran on PowerMacs but since that time Apple has refused to give code needed by the Be team to make the BeOS work on PowerMac G3s. In our opinion this is too bad as Be has since turned most of its efforts into making Be run on the x86 platform. This means that those interested in running Be will not buy Mac hardware.

Be has attracted many former Apple employees, especially during the dark days of 1996 and 1997, and is run by Jean Louis Gassé, former head of Apple Europe and other executive positions at Apple.

Be, Inc.