Eight leave Commodore

EIGHT high level employees at Commodore International have left the company in the past three weeks and another 12 seem likely to go. Major staff changes were widely expected after Marshall Smith took over as president in January, after the surprise departure of Commodore’s founder Jack Tramiel.

Commodore itself will not comment on whether the senior executives — four of them vice presidents — resigned or were fired.

The vice presidents who have left are Berhard Witter (finance), Greg Pratt (manufacturing and assembly), Taro Tokai (in charge of the Japan unit) and Lloyd Taylor (technology).

Also among those lost to the company are Jack Tramiel’s son Sam, and John Feagans, director of software technology. The latter plans to start up a software company with another Tramiel son.
Marshall Smith commented that the departures were part of “internal restructuring” and that the organisation has been streamlined as a result.