IBM UK Ltd has had a rotten year even by the standards of the company as a whole – just one measure shows that the number of MVS sites in the UK now stands at 517, down from 528 as recently as June, and sweeping changes are clearly in the air as all those close to the company attest: Hesh Wiener has been going through the record books in the expectation that history is about to repeat itself with the posts of chairman and chief executive again separated so that Tony Cleaver remains chairman and perhaps European RS/6000 supremo, while general manager Nick Temple assumes the post of chief executive – it transpires that Tony Cleaver became general manager in 1983 under Eddie – now Sir Edwin – Nixon as chairman and chief executive before moving up to the chief executive’s post in 1985, whereupon the post of general manager became vacant; Sir Edwin retired in 1990 and Cleaver added the post of chairman, and then at the beginning of this year, the post of general manager was revived with the appointment of coming man Nick Temple.
