Palm Hires Two New Senior Vice Presidents

Posted By: Ryan Thursday, September 15, 2005 11:07:13 AM

Palm today announced the appointments of Michael R. "Mike" Farese, senior vice president, engineering, and Rena Lane, senior vice president, human resources. Farese and Lane report to Ed Colligan, Palm president and chief executive officer.

"Mike and Rena are great additions to our executive team," said Colligan. "We're delighted to have someone like Mike on board with so much depth and breadth in the mobile handset space. His understanding of technology ranges from the component level all the way up to the developing 3G networks. And Rena brings a wealth of HR experience in high-growth companies, plus familiarity with building winning cultures in small to global companies."

Senior VP, Engineering
Farese is responsible for all engineering programs associated with new product development. He brings to Palm more than 20 years' experience in the development of wireless telecommunication products at such leading handset companies as Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia, and including work on some of the first GSM world phones and TDMA digital smartphones in the industry. Prior to joining Palm, Farese was president and chief executive officer of WJ Communications, a leading provider of semiconductors for the wireless industry. He also served as president and chief executive officer for Tropian Inc., a provider of ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) for GSM cellular networks and for 3-G UMTS/W-CDMA cellular networks. Farese also has held management positions at ITT Corp. and AT&T Corp., and engineering positions at Bell Laboratories.

Farese received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a master's degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University, and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic. He also is a member of the board of directors of Communications Intelligence Corp. and Newfound Communications Inc.

Senior VP, Human Resources
Lane is responsible for worldwide human resources and brings more than 15 years' experience providing progressive human-resources leadership to companies during all stages of development and global organizational growth. She joined Palm from WebEx Communications, Inc., where she was vice president of human resources. Previously, Lane was vice president of human resources at MIPS Technologies, Inc. at the time of its spin-out and IPO, and she was one of the original HR leaders at SGI during the period of rapid growth when it reached $1 billion in revenue. She also held roles with Exxon Corp.'s high-technology mergers and acquisitions team.

Lane received a bachelor's degree in economics from the State University of New York at Geneseo and a master's degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University.

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So what's up with Baransky then?

SeldomVisitor @ 9/15/2005 3:55:36 PM #

As sort-of noted elsewhere in a different comment/different thread a couple days ago, Celeste Baransky ==was== SVP of Engineering. She got a Golden Parachute late June that suggested she was leaving but got retained for awhile. Now PALM hires ANOTHER SVP of Engineering.

Yet no announcement about Baransky (either way).

Watch them PR-Fluffs outta PALM!

And maybe...

Watch them PR-Fluffs outta HPQ?

RE: So what's up with Baransky then?

SeldomVisitor @ 9/16/2005 6:59:40 AM #

Off the Exec Web page.

-- http://www.palm.com/us/company/corporate/executive.html

Wonder where she'll show up!?

Watch them HPQ PR-fluffs!

Whatta game!

Apologies to Ms. Baranski for the misssssspell

SeldomVisitor @ 9/21/2005 4:31:06 PM #

Censorship at Palminfocenter?

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 9/18/2005 11:17:09 PM #

Well it looks like Beersy and the other dumba$$ Palm Apologists suckered Ryan into censoring my posts. Too bad. I will now be watching from the sidelines and leaving the commentary up to Palmyannas like Mr. Beers and Mr. Kirvin. No doubt Palm and PalmSource spindoctors will continue to post a boatload of B.S. here to try and hide the truth.

AdamaDBrown, Foo Fighter, hkklife, Surur, Timothy Rapson etc. are some of the few remaining posters here at PIC that aren't afraid of The Truth. I hope their voices will not be silenced by this new censorship policy. It's a shame to see we no longer have any remaining Palm sites that aren't afraid to tell it like it is.

It's been fun posting here, but I cannot support a site that censors posts arbitrarily.

Au revoir, mes amis.

TVoR

------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------

The Palm eCONomy = Communism™

The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038

NetFrontLinux - the next major cellphone OS?: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=8060#111823

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

svrontis @ 9/18/2005 11:52:21 PM #

Hasta la vista, baby.

Don't let the door hit you on your way out.

RE: The Truth and How You Tell It

PenguinPowered @ 9/19/2005 3:01:48 AM #

Once upon a time, I worked for HP. In those days, we had amazing advertizing. It was so amazing that the inside joke was "If HP marketing sold sushi, they would advertize it as cold raw fish." "Cold raw fish" is TheTruth(tm) with respect to sushi, but it is no way to convince anyone to eat it.

Five years at HP taught me to describe that phenomena as "there's the truth, and then, there's how you tell it."

(don't worry about Skippy the flying none, though. It'll turn up again, like a bad penny, still farther from TheTruth than Neptune is from the sun.)

Marty Fouts
Lead Linux Lizard
PalmSource Core Technology Department

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

svrontis @ 9/19/2005 4:04:55 AM #

He had no choice really, he destroyed his credibility long ago - which made him next to useless to his sponsor.

If his client (whomsoever that may be) is still willing to keep paying, he may adopt a new name (and slightly different writing style) and try again.

If ACCESS Limited was his client, then they may no longer need him to do a hatchet-job on PalmSource. If it was someone else who was interested in taking PalmSource, ditto, I suppose. It possible that HP was his client - in which case, the cost-cutting impetus would have raised questions about his fees. So many other possibilities too and so difficult to deduce the linkages.

Such is the murky world of guerilla marketing.

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

sr4 @ 9/19/2005 5:50:43 AM #

Why are conspiracy theorists so common in the POS world?

BTW, whats a flying none?

Surur

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

hkklife @ 9/19/2005 9:24:37 AM #

Here's my mini-editorial on the whole thing:

TVoR a "guerilla"? With a "client"? Come on! He/she (I have long suspected the Voice might be a female one) was obviously a p***ed off developer (or former developer) located in or around the Bay area withn an axe to grind with the Palm companies.

I for one will miss the "scoops" and witty, well-written commentary and never had any issues with him/her as I always kept things fair and on-topic. Like it or not, many of the salient points he made about the failures of Palm to produce quality, reliable hardware and PalmSource's lack of direction/slow progress DO seem to hit the nail on the head.

Regardless of the choice in wording or the nature of the personal attacks on certain PalmSource staffers, He/she/it definitely a had a finger on the pulse of the mobile economy, and, like it or not, came frighteningly close to being right on multiple occasions. It's a shame Voice couldn't leave the insults and sexual derision behind or at least turned their frequency way down. Short-term, a compelling voice like Voice is good for PIC's business. Long-term, I knew this would eventually happen because he/she was not toning down his attacks. Since our resident Andy Rooney (Mike Cane) has departed, PIC is being left with fewer and fewer "resident celebrities".

PIC is the only site where you can get a feel for the mobile tech biz without actually being in the trenches of the industry, so to speak. I found it worthwhile to shift through all of the detritus and get to the tasty nuggets that did emerge out of the front page postings. Let's put it this way: I'd be disappointed to see TVoR go and someone like Kirvin coronated in his place (ala 1src) or someone who is in Palm's pocket (ala Brighthand).

P.S. Anyone remember ;-) here at PIC? I suspect that poster, along with "The Ugly Truth", was the Voice under an earlier alias. He/she's been around PIC longer than you suspect!

P.P.S. A shame Voice never got that LifeDrive to VZ90 comparison test article written up for PIC despite my badgering!

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

Sam H @ 9/19/2005 9:32:45 AM #

Why are conspiracy theorists so common in the POS world?

I think it's due to a variant of the Amiga Persecution Complex:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/A/Amiga-Persecution-Complex.html

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

sr4 @ 9/19/2005 10:14:30 AM #

I got banned from 1src.com for suggesting that POS users had cult-like tendencies, similar to Apple Newton users.

http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=2631

Read the PDF, its actually very interesting, and probably encompasses the Amiga Complex.

Surur

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

SeldomVisitor @ 9/19/2005 10:17:14 AM #

I still have two Amigas (had three at one time: 1000 + 2 500s).

Whatta superior machine!

Still!

Giggle.

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

Admin @ 9/19/2005 1:32:09 PM #

Voice, your comments were removed because you insulted and berate other posters here without provocation. This is no new policy. It has been going on for ages.

Profanity and disrespectfulness will not be tolerated here by anyone. You are welcome to comment here as long as you can remain respectful to other members.

-Ryan

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

svrontis @ 9/19/2005 7:54:36 PM #

The complaints about censorship at PIC remind me of something said by John Stuart Mill (who was a passionate advocate of personal liberty). To paraphrase - my right to swing my fist is limited only by your right not to be struck in the face. Does anybody disagree with that?

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

twrock @ 9/20/2005 1:25:39 AM #

Here's my mini-editorial on the whole thing:

Believe it or not, I agree almost completely with your perspective above.

I don't believe that TVOR will stay away. "It" didn't last time; I doubt it will this time either. But it might not be "TVOR" we see posting in the future.

I'm still waiting for the mythical "color HandEra."

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

twrock @ 9/20/2005 1:36:10 AM #

(sorry, forgot to mention this:)

I'd be disappointed to see TVoR go and someone like Kirvin coronated in his place (ala 1src)....

I doubt that is going to happen. There is way too much history here for a "fanboy" to rise to the top. Those who try will be shot down.

I'm still waiting for the mythical "color HandEra."

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

Tamog @ 9/21/2005 2:40:11 AM #

Hi tvor,
please-if you read this-email me at Tamog@gmx.at! I would be interested to talk with you about the reasons for your retreat and if you wouldnt be interested to comment as a member of the authoring team on another page like TamsPalm. Your analysis were a bit extreme at times, but most of the times incredibly accurate or at least transporting interesting views!
Please, anyone who knows TVOR, forward this to him!
Best regards
Tam Hanna

Find out more about the Palm OS in my blog:
http://tamspalm.blogspot.com

RE: Censorship at Palminfocenter?

Sam H @ 9/21/2005 9:57:48 AM #

I got banned from 1src.com for suggesting that POS users had cult-like tendencies, similar to Apple Newton users.
http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=2631

Read the PDF, its actually very interesting, and probably encompasses the Amiga Complex.

Interesting read, thanks. Apple takes cultivating customer loyalty to a whole other level. Even though the Newton has been forsaken by its creator, the cultists still keep the faith!