Cabletron Appoints New Chief Operating Officer

Cabletron said today that it has tapped Romulus Pereira as chief operating officer. Pereira, who was general manager of the networking company's service-provider business, will oversee engineering, sales, services, and marketing in the newly created position.

Pereira was a cofounder of Yago Systems with Cabletron CEO and chairman Piyush Patel. Yago, a maker of networking switches, was acquired by Cabletron last year. Before Yago, Pereira held positions with Cisco Systems and the Wollongong Group.

Cabletron has been struggling in recent months to regain its footing in the networking market. The company posted a loss of $245.4 million for the 1999 fiscal year, significantly higher than the $35 million loss it reported in 1998. Earlier this month, in a move that was expected to quell Wall Street's concerns about its direction, company founder and CEO Craig Benson stepped down and was replaced by Patel.