Clarent reshuffles management

(Telephony) Softswitch vendor Clarent said yesterday after market close that it has continued to rearrange management, appointing Barry Forman as the new chairman of the board. Also, Simon Wong, who was Clarent’s vice president of finance, accounting and information technology, has been promoted to chief financial officer.

As a result of the reshuffling, Richard Heaps, Clarent's CFO, COO and general counsel, will leave the company on April 30.

The management changes follow a January structural reorganization of the Redwood City, Calif.-based company that broke down sales, marketing and research responsibilities into three market segments: carriers, local access and enterprise.

Forman, a member of Clarent's board of directors since December, will have several duties, including attracting additional management talent and expanding the board from five to seven members by finding outside directors, said Clarent CEO Jerry Chang.

“We believe it is time to add additional leadership and management to Clarent,” Change said.

Prior to joining Clarent, Forman served as president of American Paradigm Corp. a private investment firm.

Wong, who joined Clarent in May 2000, has more than 20 years of financial leadership experience, including stints at Netcom On-Line Communications Services, NEC, Apple Computer, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.

The January reorganization shifted much of the operational responsibility away from Heaps, who will continue to act as a consultant to the company until August 2002

“Rich has served Clarent extremely well in the three years he’s been with the company,” Chang said. “He helped extend Clarent as a world-class corporation. The responsibility of the chief operating officer now belongs to the presidents of the three business units. For that reason, we will not fill the chief operating officer position at this time.”