Former Symantec chief joins Business Objects

John Schwarz, formerly president of Symantec, has been appointed CEO of Business Objects.

In a prepared statement, company founder Bernard Liautaud said he will continue as chairman of the board and assume the new role of chief strategy officer, focusing on long-term vision and strategy.

"As the company founder, I have a tremendous amount of pride in the company we have built in the last 15 years; we are now a billion-dollar company and the clear leader in the fast-growing business intelligence industry," he said.

"Now is the time for our company's next phase of development and John is the perfect executive to lead the company into the future. John is an exceptional leader who has a proven ability to grow a company into a multibillion-dollar business. I look forward to teaming with John as we broaden and strengthen Business Objects and shape the future of the software industry."

Commenting on his appointment, Schwarz said he has always participated in building high-growth, global organizations in the software industry. He said the innovative, customer-focused culture at Business Objects makes it a natural fit.

"My goal is to build on the momentum Business Objects has established and to create one of the world's 10 largest software companies," he added.

Schwarz joins the company from Symantec Corporation, where he held the position of president and was responsible for leading the company's six lines of business.

He played a key role in growing the business to more than triple in size from less than $US1 billion to more than $2.7 billion in revenue, and was instrumental in the Veritas acquisition. Before this position, Schwarz was at IBM for 25 years.

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