Sun's chip boss fertilizes budding Juniper branch

David Yen enters the bush

By Austin Modine • Get more from this author

Posted in Data Networking, 26th March 2008 23:22 GMT

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Juniper Networks is ready to dish details on the hiring of Sun Microsystem's now-former chip chief, David Yen.

Earlier this week, El Reg reported that Yen was leaving his spot as head of Sun's microprocessor efforts for an undisclosed position at Juniper. Both companies had brokered a deal not to reveal Yen's transfer until it was official on April 4, but obviously this wasn't entirely successful.

David Yen

Sun displayed a valiant effort to keep the secret close to its heart, sharing the information only with certain key executives on a need to know basis. Oh, and also some 33,350 employees in a company-wide email offering Yen's new contact information. Somehow the media caught on.

Juniper apparently decided it couldn't keep the fresh meat under wraps with the buzzards of journalism circling overhead. Today, the company announced Yen is being appointed to the position of executive vice president of emerging technology.

"It is with great delight that we welcome one of the industry's most distinguished technology luminaries to the Juniper executive management team," said Scott Kriens, Juniper CEO in a statement.

The company said Yen will assemble an engineering team to lead the company's up-and-coming tech initiatives, while also providing insight into current tends. Yen will report directly to Kriens.

Yen worked at Sun for 20 years in a variety of capacities, including veep of its enterprise server business, executive veep of processor and network products, and veep of scalable systems. ®

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