Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Windy city Ike also hit Ohio Sunday. Not nearly as bad as Houston, but bad for Ohio. We had winds of up to 80 mph for 6 hours Sunday afternoon. I returned home from a family trip to Chicago (where they had about 10 inches of rain from the storm) to find patio furniture scattered and no cable. Other than no Browns game I don't miss TV. That is my Internet connection though. I'm at a McDonalds on Tuesday at almost 9 pm scarfing a little Internet connection and a bad hot chocolate. I'm getting a new cellular card for the laptop tomorrow. No more WiFi charges all over the place for me. Wednesday evening I'll be in Cleveland. I think you can still register for the ISA Sales & Marketing Summit there. I speak at one of the three tracks Thursday afternoon at 3:30pm. Catherine Durkosh of Siemens is speaking opposite me. I'd be there if I weren't speaking myself ;-) If you're there, be sure to say hi. Next week it's two days in Orlando and the MESA International Conference. Geek meetup Monday evening? 8:49:11 PM    comment []

Roach to leave Rockwell Just in. Kevin Roach has resigned from Rockwell Automation. He has been executing an ambitious strategy to make Rockwell a dominant software player. It's been exciting to watch. This is, of course, the exodus of yet another "outsider" from Rockwell. I have occasionally been contacted by his new company's PR, but it's only a partial fit to the scope of Automation World. A move of this kind always leads to a lot of questions. We'll have to see how Rockwell chooses to fill the role to gauge its intentions about continuing the direction Roach set. Here is the announcement I got this afternoon: Kevin Roach, VP/GM of Rockwell Software, has accepted a position as executive vice president with Activant Solutions Inc., a private-equity funded software company that is in a different industry from Rockwell Automation.  He will remain with Rockwell Automation until September 26, at which time Brian Van Horn, director of Finance, will take on the VP/GM position on an interim basis until a long-term replacement is named.    "It is our intent to identify a successor quickly and we have already begun the process to move forward," said Steve Eisenbrown, senior vice president, Rockwell Automation Architecture & Software.  "We are committed to identifying a successor who will stay the course in terms of the current vision and strategy. The Information Solutions business will continue to be a key part of our growth strategy," Eisenbrown emphasized. 8:43:14 PM    comment []