Papows resigns – Lotus drops the ‘pilot’

Lotus president Jeff Papows is resigning after spending most of last year in a somewhat discredited state. Last April the Wall Street Journal published a hilarious (if you weren't Jeff, that is) expose of his highly colourful and imaginative resume, and shortly afterwards was named in a sexual harassment action by a former Lotus employee. Papows claims to be moving on to new, unspecified challenges, but it's a tribute to the tact and tolerance of IBM's high command that he wasn't seeking those challenges nine months ago. The WSJ piece had pulled him up for claims he was an orphan, for serious embroidery of his academic record, and most spectacularly, for his elaborate tales of his gung ho career as a US marine pilot. The Marine Corps could recall a Lieutenant Jeffrey Papows, air traffic control operative, but no ace jet jockey Captain Papows. He's being replaced as Lotus president by Al Zollar, who's been heading up the IBM network computer software division. Zollar, 45, is claimed to be one of the highest-ranking black executives at IBM, and we're sure he's not making that up. ® See also: Lotus chief's combat record savaged by WSJ