CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Embattled Lotus Development president and chief executive Jeffrey Papows resigned on Thursday, following a year in which he was accused of sex discrimination and of lying on his resume about his education and military record.
"I am convinced that now is a time when I can move on to a new challenge in our industry with the least possible disruption to the great momentum that we have established," Papows said in a letter to the 8,000 employees of Lotus, a subsidiary of IBM.A company spokesman would not say whether the bad publicity factored into Papows' decision. Papows, 45, did not indicate where he would go next.
The resignation takes effect Feb. 1. He will be succeeded by Al Zollar, who spent his 23-year career at IBM, most recently as general manager of the network computing software division. There, he was responsible for orchestrating IBM's push to design and develop Internet software for e-business.
The timing of Papows' departure is awkward, coming just 10 days before the company's Jan. 16 Lotusphere trade show, which thousands of Lotus customers attend annually, said Chris Le Tocq, research director for the Gartner Group in San Jose, Calif., a technology consulting firm.
Le Tocq speculated that Papows was not necessarily forced out, but that he was shut out of promotions through the IBM ranks, in part due to the negative press of the last year.
"What comes over is not a push, but a closing off of opportunity, which definitely is a strong message," Le Tocq said Thursday.
In addition to Papows' personal travails, the company has been battling Microsoft over software that allows employees to share information simultaneously.
Lotus, best known for its 1-2-3 spreadsheet and once a rising star in the software industry, had been struggling when IBM took over the company in the mid 1990s. Lotus maintained its independence, as well as its brand name.
Today its economic health is much better, analysts said. During Papows leadership, the Lotus Notes program grew from 2.2 million users in 1995 to more than 50 million users today.
The fact that an IBM executive will now be heading Lotus may signal that the parent company is trying to pull the subsidiary closer to its core, Le Tocq said.
But Lotus remains an important and distinct part of IBM's business, said IBM software executive John Thompson.
"Research tells us consistently that a strong, vibrant Lotus brand has clear value in the marketplace and enhances all of IBM's software brands," he said in a letter to Lotus workers.
Papows came under fire last April when The Wall Street Journal reported that Papows had fabricated much about his life, including heroic tales as a Marine flier who burst an eardrum during Persian Gulf War training and who saved himself and a friend once by tossing a live grenade out of a trench.
The Marines said he was an air-traffic controller and never served as an aviator. While his 1997 resume showed he was a captain, military records show he rose only to first lieutenant.
And a doctorate he claimed from Pepperdine University came from an unaccredited correspondence school.
Papows told the Journal he never told most of the stories colleagues and customers say they recall, such as that he was an orphan or held a Pepperdine doctorate, saying that people must have misunderstood him or just wanted to spread "water-cooler legend."
Also in April, a former executive filed a sex discrimination complaint with the state, saying she and other female managers were singled out for poor treatment by Papows and his executive assistant.
Papows would not comment at the time, but Lotus issued a statement saying the complaint was "without merit and contains reckless and unfounded allegations."