As the consumer market continues to rave about the new Palm Pre, the financial markets are reacting positively to another Palm bombshell: a new CEO.
On Wednesday, Palm appointed Jon Rubinstein, 52, as its new CEO. Ed Colligan, 48, who served as Palm’s chief since 2005, is stepping down. Colligan served in leadership positions at Palm for 16 years.
Colligan plans to take some time off, then join Elevation Partners, a newly formed private equity firm that makes large-scale investments in market leading media, entertainment and consumer-related businesses.
“I’m very proud of what Palm has accomplished so far,” Colligan said. “We pioneered two major product categories and I believe we are on our way to defining the standard for the mobile Web. I’m extremely proud of our team, and grateful to have played a role in turning Palm around. I know that Jon, the Board and the Palm executive team will do an incredible job driving Palm to new heights.”
Bringing Apple Flare to Palm
As for Rubenstein, he joined Palm as Executive Chairman in October 2007 to help bring innovation back to the company. He has been leading Palm’s product development efforts sine his arrival. He will assume his role as CEO on June 12.
Rubenstein is widely known for launching some of the most influential computing products of the past decade. As a member of Apple’s executive staff and head of hardware engineering, Rubenstein was instrumental in conceiving the iPod. Rubenstein launched his career at Apple in 1997 as a senior vie president for hardware engineering. In 1998, he led the rollout of the iMac, the model that revitalized Apple with its new design. Before he left Apple, Rubenstein was head of the iPod Division.
“I am very excited about taking on this expanded role at Palm,” said Rubinstein. “Ed and I have worked very…