IONA unveils new appointments

IONA Technologies has announced the appointment of Chris Horn as chief executive officer and of Kevin Melia as chairman, and the resignation of Barry Morris, Steven Fisch, and David James.

Horn is co-founder and chairman of the firm and has been chairman since March 1991. He is chairman of the Irish Management Institute (IMI) in Dublin and serves as a director on the board of directors of a number of Irish high-tech companies and representative organisations.

Kevin Melia has been an IONA board member since 1994. He has held a number of senior management positions in the high-tech industry, most recently as founder,chairman and chief executive of Nasdaq listed Manufacturers Services.

He is also a former chief financial officer of Sun Microsystems, president of SunMicrosystems Computer Company, and executive vice president of operations for Sun Microsystems.

In a series of further moves, Barry Morris, chief executive officer since May 2000, Steven Fisch, chief operations officer , who joined the company in August 2002, and David James, executive vice president corporate development, who joined in 1997, have resigned.

Horn said: “Our objective is to provide top quality support to our extensive installed customer base, to build on IONA’s strengths and capability to develop new products, and to enable us better to support our customer’s evolving IT requirements with excellent products and service.”

Commenting on his resignation as chief executive officer, Barry Morris said: “I have enjoyed the challenges of working with IONA, its employees, customers, partners and its products. I feel it is time to move on to a new challenge. It has been a privilege to lead IONA to the height of its success and to manage thecompany in difficult market conditions."