The last member of the management team at Motorola Inc.’s cellphone division that rode the original Razr to success is leaving the company.
Ray Roman’s departure was announced internally at Motorola today and confirmed to Crain’s Chicago Business by the company. Crain’s Chicago Business is a sister publication of RCR Wireless News.
Roman was senior VP of worldwide mobile devices sales for the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company.
In February, Ron Garriques, head of mobile devices, left for Dell Inc., and was replaced by supply-chain veteran Stu Reed.
Roman’s exit completes a changeover in day-to-day management of the mobile-devices business, which makes up 51% of the company’s revenue. His position will not be filled.
When the Razr was surging, Motorola credited Roman with helping the company double the division’s revenue. But the handset business has been struggling, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. this summer surpassed Motorola as the global No. 2 handset vendor.
Another senior manager in handsets, Terry Vega, a senior VP for global devices, also left a few months ago.
These departures are part of a broader management shuffle begun by CEO Ed Zander, early this year, after Carl Icahn mounted an unsuccessful proxy fight.
In March, Greg Brown, who had run Motorola’s public communications and network equipment business, was promoted to the No. 2 position at the company, president and COO. Board member Tom Meredith, a former Dell executive, was brought in to serve as chief financial officer.
John Pletz is a reporter for Crain’s Chicago Business, a sister publication for RCR Wireless News. Both publications are owned by Crain Communications Inc.
