Optima cuts staff

It has emerged that Australian box builder Optima had cut 12 staff in its service and operations area around the same time as three senior staff announced their resignations last week.

A total of 15 staff had left or been cut from its staff roster of more than 150 staff.

Cornel Ung, MD at ASX-listed Optima told CRN: "We let some people go in the operations area, just under eight percent of the company."

As reported by CRN on Monday, three senior staff resigned last week, including company MD Douglas Wong, who had been in the job since July.

Wong was appointed MD following former MD Cornel Ung's decision to move into the role of executive chairman of the board.

Optima said Wong had resigned to "pursue his many external interests." Ung would assume the MD mantle following Wong's departure.

Optima Technology Solutions' channel sales manager Michael Calculli also announced his resignation and said he was "leaving Optima's channel business in a better position now than when I commenced the role 12 months ago." He has moved across to Lexar as sales manager for Australia and New Zealand.

Ung said that "some people left the organisation because of its change in direction."

"Some managers were not necessarily happy with the direction moving forward," he said.

In addition, Optima's CFO and company secretary Justin Taylor has also resigned, the company said in a statement to the ASX. Edmond Chan has been appointed to replace Taylor as CFO. Chan is a chartered accountant and was a director of the company until August 2004.

Meanwhile, Pipvide Tang has been appointed as non-executive director and secretary of the company. Tang was CFO and secretary until November 2003, Optima said.

In addition, Optima has also appointed Charles Yan to the position of sales and marketing director. Yan had previously worked at Digital, NCR, and Compaq in various sales and marketing roles in Australia and across Asia-Pacific.