Novell announces year-end departure of Kanwal Rekhi

Business Wire, Nov 29, 1994

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) Tuesday announced the decision of executive vice president Kanwal S. Rekhi to retire from full time responsibilities with the company effective Jan. 1.

After that date, Rekhi will become a consultant to the corporation acting as a strategic advisor to Robert J. Frankenberg, president and chief executive officer of Novell. Rekhi will also continue on the board of directors of Novell through the end of his term in March 1995.

"Kanwal's leadership has been instrumental in moving Novell beyond its PC networking origins to encompass the world of UNIX systems, TCP/IP networks and the integration of host computer systems within Novell's NetWare networks," said Frankenberg. "He has made an enormous contribution in preparing Novell to lead the move to pervasive computing as networks become easier to use and the numbers of network users expand significantly over the coming years."

Commenting on his decision, Rekhi said, "It has been a wonderful, albeit strenuous, 12 plus years with the company. Novell is stronger technologically than it has ever been. With a strong management team in place and significant new product cycles starting, now is an opportune time for me to follow through on my long-standing desire to take some time off and try other things in life."

Rekhi was instrumental in providing the leadership that established NetWare 3 as the leading network operating system in the early 1990s. Rekhi drove Novell product development to successfully coordinate the parallel development of NetWare 3, Novell's first 32-bit network operating system, and the numerous add-on products that enabled NetWare 3 to support PCs, Macintoshes, UNIX-based computers and IBM host systems on the same network.

Rekhi has been central in Novell's moves to embrace the UNIX system and lead the industry in evolving this technology into he next century. After the company's acquisition of UNIX System Laboratories 1993, Rekhi oversaw the integration of USL within Novell, and managed the formation of Novell's UNIX Systems Group. Prior to this 1991 to 1993 Rekhi led Novell's expansion into internetworking technologies as executive vice president and general manager of the Interoperability Systems Group.

Rekhi joined Novell in 1989 through its merger with Excelan Inc., where he was a founder. At the time of its merger with Novell he was president and CEO. Excelan had grown since 1982 to become a leading supplier of TCP/IP networking technology. It also brought network management and Apple Macintosh networking expertise to Novell.

The business of Novell Inc. is connecting people to other people and the information they need, enabling them to act on it anytime, any place. Novell is the world's leading network software provider. The company's products provide the distributed infrastructure, network services, advanced network access and network applications required to make networked information and pervasive computing an integral part of everyone's daily life.

CONTACT: Novell

Melanie King, 408/577-6842