Was Crossin forced out to make way for one of Ganmukhis old pals? Through a spokesman, Ganmukhi denies Crossin was asked to resign. Crossin, reached at his home in Acton, Mass., would say only, Were still talking about what my relationship to the company is.
Now, as Cereva starts ramping up for volume shipments of its storage switch, Kellogg will oversee Cerevas supplier relationships. Before his stint at Ellacoya, he was a business unit director for Jabil Circuit Inc., a provider of outsourced electronics manufacturing services and also one of Cerevas current suppliers. Kellogg graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1977 and received an MBA from New Hampshire College in 1995.
Cereva has had more than its fair share of executive turnover recently.
In September, CFO Brian Cohen and VP of sales Timothy Lieto left the company (see Cereva Skids to a Halt)). Cereva then engaged in a legal dispute with Pirus Networks, which had attempted to hire Lieto; Cereva alleged that Lieto was violating a non-compete clause of his contract, and on Oct. 11 Cereva won a ruling preventing Lieto from working at Pirus (see Cereva 1 -- Pirus 0). Since then, the two companies have settled the matter, with Pirus deciding to not challenge the ruling and Cereva withdrawing its suit.
Last month Ganmukhi hired two new executives: Charles Lenis, most recently with Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) by way of PixStream, is Cerevas VP of worldwide sales, customer service and business development. And Kurt Reiss, most recently with Crossbeam Systems Inc., will head up Cerevas marketing. Reiss worked with Ganmukhi at Lucent and Cascade.