Palm Has Quietly Brought On a New Head of Product Realization

With absolutely no fanfare, Palm, Inc. has hired Mike Bell as its Senior Vice President of Product Development.

Bell's role is to "lead the company's product-realization group, leveraging his extensive expertise in bringing products to market."

He will clearly be working closely with Jon Rubinstein, who is both Palm's chairman and the overall head of development efforts.

Both men are Apple alumni; Rubinstein is the former head of hardware engineering at Apple, while Bell was that company's Vice President, CPU Software, in the Macintosh Hardware Division.

Palm's chairman has been shaking up Palm's management team since he joined the company around the middle of last year. For example, he's been credited for ending the tenure of Michael Farese, formerly Senior Vice President, Engineering.

A Controversial Choice?

Bell was apparently hired last month, but Palm went against its regular policy and made no formal announcement that it had chosen a new high-level executive.

According to the tech-gossip site Valleywag, the reason for this is Apple is upset with Rubinstein for hiring away so many of its employees.

Related Articles:

• Jon Rubinstein Working Hard to Turn Palm Around
• Palm To Close All Its Retail Stores

Via Palm Infocenter