Shaking up the ranks

In the midst of its worst financial times, JDS Uniphase revealed recently that several executive changes have been made at the company. Most significantly, Jay Abbe is retiring as president and chief operating officer of the company’s WDM, Switching and Film Business Group. Abbe is also retiring from the board of directors of the company.

Initially, Abbe was CEO of Optical Coating Laboratories before its merger with JDSU in February of 2000. After JDSU’s merger with SDL, Abbe took on the role of president and chief operating officer.

The company also revealed that it has appointed Greg Dougherty as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the company. Dougherty had been serving as chief operating officer of the JDSU’s Amplification Transmission Business Group and will now take on the day-to-day operations of JDSU.

In addition to those changes, Co-chairman and CEO Jozef Straus will add the title of president to his business cards. Former SDL CEO Don Scifres will get the added role of chief strategy officer in addition to serving as chairman of the board of directors.

“They are sort of divvying up some of the things Jay did,” said a company spokeswoman, pointing to the fact that both Dougherty and Strauss were taking on portions of Abbe’s duties.

The executive changes come after several restructuring plans have been revealed this year. The company has watched its stock sink and has been forced to lay off a large portion of its staff.