Symantec's president of its key security and data management business Jeremy Burton has quit the firm to become CEO of business process software firm Serena Software.

Burton, a marketing specialist, joined Symantec as part of the senior management group assimilated in the Veritas acquisition. To many, the rationale behind that buy has yet to fully reveal itself, with the security giant delivering disappointing results since integration.

Other high profile departures from Symantec since the deal have included CFO Greg Myers and president John Schwarz, though both made their exits in 2005.

San Mateo, California-based Serena was founded in 1980 and employs almost 800 worldwide. It's owned by its senior executive team and private equity fund Silver Lake Partners.

According to its website, "Serena offers a new approach to change — Change Governance — that enables businesses to efficiently, consistently, and successfully control change across the enterprise. Serena helps companies capitalize on change to achieve transformative business results."

We'd recommend that among the first changes of Mr Burton's governance should be to pay someone to write a more useful precis of what his company actually does. ®

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