Much has been written about Nortel's appointment of a new COO and President on March 4th.  Gary Daichendt, who has remained pretty much on the sidelines of the telecom world since stepping down from Cisco after a six year tenure in 2000, is the newest exec to join Nortel.  Daichendt was the VP of worldwide sales at Cisco (just one of two VPs reporting directly to CEO John Chambers, with whom he worked both at IBM and Wang Laboratories). 

As a result, Nortel CEO Bill Owens will give up his title of President, while becoming Board Co-Chairman, while new CFO Peter Currie will gain the extra title of Executive Vice President.  The fact that Owens will get expanded powers as the CEO (as a co-chair in the board) and that his handpicked CFO is getting the exec VP title indicate that the Nortel Board might not be preparing to replace Owens with an executive with more industry experience, contrary to some views expressed in the blogsphere. 

However, Owens nearly impeccable reputation got a bit stained when Nortel's accounting department failed on repeated occasions to deliver SEC filings by certain deadlines promised by him.  In January, the failure to deliver at least Q3 2004 results by the end month might have resulted in the departure of Bill Kerr as the CFO, and the appointment of Peter Currie to the job.  While Mr. Kerr was planning to step down anyway, the word on Wall Street was that the switch was triggered by this latest setback in reporting results on time.  Currie became the company's sixth CFO in the past five years.

So what does Daichendt's hiring mean?  Of course, he brings a lot of intangibles to the table, including his extensive telecom background, which is particularly important when attempting to secure major carrier deals where industry know-how is sine-qua-non for understanding deal lingo.  Bringing in an IP champion in the executive suite also shows Nortel's commitment to the technology, as the market transitions from TDM-based equipment to packet switched gear.  The company certainly has been further along in incorporating IP-based technologies into its product mix.