Polycom Rejigs Executive Team To Boost Operating Performance

(RTTNews) - Communications solutions provider Polycom, Inc. (PLCM) announced that Chief Operating Officer and Chief financial officer Eric Brown is leaving the company, effective immediately, to pursue other opportunities. The move comes as part of the company's realignment of its executive team in order to continue its focus on driving operating performance.

"Increasing operating margins remains the number one financial priority for Polycom in 2014. After careful review of the needs of the organization, we have streamlined the accounting, finance, services and operations functions in order to better focus on driving operating margin improvement," President and CEO Peter Leav said in a statement.

As part of the realignment, the company eliminated the position of chief operating officer, and named Chief Accounting Officer Laura Durr as the interim CFO to succeed Brown, with immediate effect. Durr will serve in the role and report directly to Leav, as Polycom launches an executive search for a new CFO.

However, the San Jose, California-based video-conferencing equipment maker said that the executive realignment is not a reflection of any accounting or financial concerns at the company. The company added that the operations and services functions of the company will now report directly to Leav.

Brown joined Polycom in February 2012 as chief operating officer, chief financial officer and executive vice president. He came to Polycom after serving as CFO of Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA), and earlier as COO and CFO at McAfee, Inc.. Prior to that, he was president and CFO of MicroStrategy, Inc, and also co-founded DataSage, Inc., where he also served as CFO.

"We thank Eric Brown for his service to Polycom. Laura Durr is a ten-year veteran of Polycom and a seasoned financial executive, so we expect a smooth transition," Leav added.

Durr has served as chief accounting officer since 2005. She joining Polycom in 2004 after holding executive positions in finance and administration at QuickSilver Technology, C Speed Corp. and Lucent Technologies. She had earlier spent six years at Price Waterhouse LLP.

PLCM closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $13.48, up $0.09 on a volume of 1.63 million shares.