Former CSC New Zealand managing director Kimbal Riley saw the writing on the wall for his job once Hewlett-Packard took over the company, but believes the firm is in good hands.
Riley, who left CSC last month after 18 months with the firm and following its merger with Hewlett-Packard's services division, has joined Nortel Networks to run its Asia-Pacific outsourcing team.
"The sale of CSC New Zealand to HP completed, and a second MD not being a requirement for HP, it was apparent I would be moving to a new role," Riley says.
He declines to comment on the precise details of his departure from HP-CSC but says the merger will benefit CSC New Zealand customers by combining his old firm's "expertise and experience ... with the presence and credibility of HP".
Riley joined Nortel Networks several weeks ago and is based in Singapore. He is practice director for managed services within the Canadian-owned networking giant's global professional services business for the Asia-Pacific. It involves managing 30 to 40 staff, working on projects in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and China. Riley says he has an interest in developing business for Nortel in New Zealand, but it would have to depend on the size of the opportunities the country has.
Riley heads into a company in the midst of huge change. Nortel Networks in October announced losses of $US3.47 billion for its fiscal third quarter of 2001, on top of a $US19.4 billion loss in the quarter before. The company warned that it would cut 10,000 more jobs as it tries to prune its worldwide workforce to 45,000.
Before joining CSC New Zealand in February 2000, Riley spent seven years with Digital/Compaq as director of professional services. He has been in the IT industry since 1981.
His replacement at CSC is acting head Andrew Murray, who is answerable to HP services boss Mark Bowman. The integration of the two business units is due for completion by December 1, with the expected loss of up to 20 jobs, as reported last week.