Another ex-Apple executive has made his way to Palm, Inc. The company has named David Nagel to the position of president and CEO; Mr. Nagel was already a member of Palmis board of directors. In a previous life, Mr. Nagel served as Appleis chief R&D scientist. He left that position shortly after Gil Amelio began his reign as Appleis CEO and was replaced by Ellen Hancock.
Mr. Nagel will be helping Palmis transition into two companies, a hardware company and a software company. Mr. Nagelis interests include wireless connectivity and other related technologies. From the Wall Street Journal piece:
The hiring of Mr. Nagel, who already is a member of Palmis board, reflects the Santa Clara, Calif., hand-held-computer makeris plans to sharpen its focus after a sales slowdown this year. In late July, Palm said it would form a separate subsidiary structure for its software business, a change overseen by Mr. Nagel as a board member.
This month, the company purchased some technology assets from software provider Be Inc. for $11 million. Alan Kessler, the former head of Palmis software group, resigned in mid-August. Mr. Nagel, 56 years old, will start at Palm Sept. 17 and retain his seat on Palmis board. He will report to Palmis board of directors until the company forms its new software subsidiary by yearis end. When that happens, Palm said Mr. Nagel will likely report to a separate board and the unit will operate as an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Palm.
There is more information on Mr. Nagelis hiring in the full WSJ article. For the record, this David Nagel shouldnit be confused with the journalist of the same name.